Since Russia’s re-emergence as a super power primarily under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, the world has felt a little uncomfortable about prospective future relations between Moscow and the West. The Kremlin’s ability to subdue massive democratic reforms that struggled to find feet in those chaotic years following the break-up of the Soviet Union has always put the United States and her allies across Europe on tenterhooks suspecting Russian intentions regarding international relations.

August’s brief yet deadly conflict between Russia and little Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia has brought to light a long feared truth. Moscow has chosen her time to bully and blackmail breakaway former Soviet states like Georgia and the Ukraine to prevent a NATO expansion along Russia’s brittle western borders. The Russia-Georgia conflict is just the tip of the iceberg with deep rooted geopolitical intentions still at large in the minds of the Kremlin politicians. Angered by Washington’s missile defence shield deal with Poland, a new nationalistic Russia has found ways and means to take critical and outstanding international issues to ransom. Take for example the stalemate over Iran. Russia is one of the leading business partners of Tehran and the west still hopes that Moscow’s influence over the radical Islamic government of Iran could produce a breakthrough and even resolve the nuclear standoff that has isolated Tehran from the west and brought the wrath of UN sanctions over the oil-rich Middle Eastern state. But what is Russia’s attitude towards the issue? Provide more logistical supplies to Tehran and whenever the opportunity comes, Moscow’s ‘nationalistic’ leaders never forget to veto any UN action against Tehran.
Russia may have a new President in the form of an academician, the state-owned Gazprom’s former Chairman Dmitry Medvedev but is he the real leader of this vast diverse country? President Medvedev was handpicked by his predecessor Vladimir Putin to be the next President of the Russian Federation in March but the Georgian conflict has provided the world with a glimpse of the powers of a Russian Prime Minister which were considered ceremonial during the days Vladimir Putin as the President. Maybe I’m wrong but still I could not remember the Russian Prime Minister during the eight-year tenure of President Putin having so much say on Kremlin’s foreign policies what we experienced during that brief Georgian crisis last month. It was Prime Minister Putin who called all the shots as far as the media was concerned. In a dynamic and nationalistic gesture the former KGB man flew straight into North Ossetia from the Beijing Olympics to attend military briefings and visiting Russian refugees in temporary camps. No Doubt when President Dmitry Medvedev was sitting in Moscow taking notes of events unfolding in the Caucasus, Mr.Putin was conducting military surveys of his troops and sending volleys of diplomatic insults to the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and primarily to the United States. In one CNN interview, in the Black sea resort of Sochi, Prime Minister Putin even went a long way by suggesting that the Georgian crisis was a deliberate ploy by one of the US Presidential hopefuls and his party to reignite American nationalism in his bid to capture White House. Well, a true remark reminiscent of the days of the Cold War.
Now the question is where does the world stand since the start of the Georgian crisis and most importantly are we heading towards a situation which could get messy by potentially dividing the world just it did at the end of the last great war? Call it the great rise of Russia as an economic and military superpower or the American call to spread democracy in every possible part of the world, the Georgian crisis is an eye-opener for the world which needs to look at options to avoid an ideological and military clash between two superpowers which otherwise have immense potentials to work together to resolve various issues which if not dealt with properly at the right time could haunt all the parties involved in the long term.
Europe is dependent on Russia for her vast energy and oil resources and Moscow knows that with no alternatives available in the near future for the continent to rely less on Russia’s whims of energy export, the Kremlin can play cards well by dividing western Europe as far as mutual relations are concerned. Old strategy but effective one. Fearing more Russian economic backlash one German official has publicly rejected Georgia’s plea to join NATO. Serious divisions have come to light within the European Union over the Georgia issue. This is a serious lack of foreign policy clarity on the part of the US and its European allies which have lingering divisions over Afghanistan and Iraq. Many believe the US has interests in keeping the Caucasus tense as this is a strategic region with immense oil and natural gas deposits which Washington desperately wants a fair share of to decrease the dependence on the Middle East for oil and gas. Yet, this makes the case of Russian nationalistic hawks much stronger who cannot stand the sight of increasing American influence in and around Moscow’s southern borders.
Not surprisingly, the Georgia conflict has taken the form of a US-Russia struggle vying for political and economic control over the space emptied by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Too much meddling into the affairs of former Soviet states is being seen by Moscow as US tactics in keeping close eyes on Russian political, economical and military resurgence.
Alexander Dugin, regarded by some quarters as the father of contemporary Russian nationalism, has provided a grim prediction for the future US-Russia relations. He was quoted as saying by an English language Turkish Daily that,

It(Georgian crisis)is only the beginning of a real, and maybe very serious, and very dangerous for all of the sides, confrontation between us and the Americans.

Image and News Link: BBC