Russia: May 10, 2004

Archives

The newly elected Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili has apparently established a personal relationship with newly re-elected president Vladimir Putin. This is making it possible for Georgia to eliminate local warlords, who have been backed by Russian generals in charge of Russian military bases left over from the Cold War. This odd situation developed after Georgia declared its independence in the wake of the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991. Politics in the Caucasus has never been simple, and the situation in Georgia became more and more complicated throughout the 1990s as Russia tried to deal with rebellious Chechnya (to the north of Georgia) and an ugly situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan (two more former parts of the Soviet Union) to the south. Russia refused to withdraw Cold War era garrisons, and backed separatist Georgian warlords in order to exercise some influence over the Georgian government.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close