Col. Stanislav Lunev
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his military to look into the possibility of launching strikes on neighboring Georgia if the former Soviet republic failed to end "bandit incursions" across their common border.

Putin chose the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. to issue his harshest warning yet to Georgia, which he said has failed to crack down on so-called Chechen rebels staging raids across the border.

In his remarks broadcast on national TV Putin said, "I am asking the military staff to provide proposals on whether it is possible and expedient to launch strikes on bases of terrorists reliably identified in intelligence operations."

Addressing representatives of Russia's security ministries, he also said that such action would be unnecessary if Georgia will hunt down and destroy the rebels, who have been hiding in the remote Pankisi Gorge.

As NewsMax.com reported on Aug. 23, Russia's threats reflect Moscow's inability to accept Georgia's very existence as an independent country. Pankisi Gorge, a largely lawless Georgia mountain border region that is inhabited by ethnic Chechens, is home to many refugees from the war in Chechnya who have not participated in the war to any great extent.

Georgia has protested several incursions by Russian warplanes into Pankisi Gorge, and on Aug. 28, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze traveled to the region that both Tbilisi and Washington say was bombed by Russian aircraft, and accused those who ordered the attack of barbarism that killed one civilian and wounded seven others.

Last Thursday, the Georgian Parliament sent a statement to the U.N., NATO and other international organizations stating that Putin's new warning "has placed before Georgia the threat of aggression."

In the past year, Georgia, a strategically significant former Soviet republic in the Trans-Caucasus on the border between Russia and Asia, has rapidly strengthened its ties with the U.S. and hasn't kept secret its intention to join NATO at some future date. Moscow doesn't like and will not accept long-term U.S. presence in the region and has dramatically increased pressure on Georgia, trying to change the pro-American and pro-Western policy of authorities in Tbilisi.

Since May, American troops have been based in Georgia providing anti-terrorism training to the local army. Last week, 20 U.S. Special Forces instructors handed out uniforms, modern military equipment and new weapons to the first group of 400 Georgian soldiers they are training there. The U.S. instructors and 80 support troops are part of a $64 million mission to build the core of a professional army for Georgia, to enable it to take on Islamic rebels.

During the mission's two-year life span, five battalions – one air-mobile, one mechanized, one mountain warfare, one commando and one special forces unit – will be trained, and the first unit of 400 men, a rapid-reaction air-mobile force, will complete its program in just under 100 days.

However, at present the Georgian army is poorly equipped and has only about 17,000 men, who could not seriously resist Russian strikes in the immediate future.

The timing of Putin's warnings, coming as the U.N. General Assembly was about to hear President Bush state his case for military action against Iraq, indicated the Russian president wants to draw parallels between the Russia-Georgia and U.S.-Iraq disputes. Russia has strongly opposed any unilateral action by the U.S. against Iraq, and it is unclear if the Kremlin would abandon its objections if Washington gave tacit approval to an attack against Georgia.

Russia's military is ready to launch attacks in Georgia to flush out Chechen rebels believed to be based in Pankisi Gorge, Russian defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at the end of last week. Meanwhile, Ivanov told reporters that specific attack proposals would be presented to President Putin in the near future, but such strikes "may not be needed" if Georgian authorities take appropriate measures.

In other words, Moscow reserved the right to attack Georgia soon if they do not change their pro-American and pro-Western policy. This is nothing but another of Putin's attempts to challenge U.S. strategic interests and goals, this time in the extremely important region of the Trans-Caucasus.

Col. Stanislav Lunev is the highest-ranking Soviet military intelligence officer ever to defect from Russia. Read his gripping story, Through the Eyes of the Enemy.

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