Georgias NATO membership

According to Michail Saakashvili, Georgia will be a NATO member very soon. Ahha, you laugh: Yet another fantasy from the outspoken president..sorry ex-president for now. But is it that far fetched? To understand the situation we need to look at whats happen in Kosovo. Russia says that recognition of Kosovo's independence from Serbia will set a precedent and lead to a landslide of other regions, autonome or not, seeking the same solution. Good examples are Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia. So Russia says no, and supports Serbia. EU on the other hand seems to recognise Kosovos claim, and thereby initiating the process in other regions..like Abkhazia. So by doing this EU legitimize the same process in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, thereby giving Russia carte blanche to act as a co-player for both regions in the process of independence. Oh, but that's nothing new, you might say. And you are right. The only difference is that the Russian operations are now legitime. Thats a BIG difference. So what counter measures might EU and the western countries, together with US have in order to prevent this happening? To me it seems that the only possible solution, if they don't want to loose their influence in the Caucasus and leave Georgia to be a helpless pray for the Russians, is to speed up the NATO membership process in Georgia. To loose Abkhazia with the help of Russia means war, Georgian officials have stated numerous times, wich in it's turn might lead to Russia occupying Georgia. So maybe Misha is not that far out in his predictions? Or maybe he is. The western countries are extremely passive when it comes to the Russian FSB-mafia extortionists in Kreml.

GOTO Caucasus.net

After a mildly extreme autumn, with lots of work in my company and too much time spent on my masterdegree, I have put together the final website: www.goto.caucasus.net. It consists of two parts: One with travel offers, and the second; the cultural part, with interviews, pictorials and portraits. Hopefully this will make it possible to both find some good tour-offers and sufficient background material for the cultural interested, and advanced traveller. Open the site from the top of my linklist.

Meet Elizabeth

Yesterday I came across a blog from Georgia written by a Norwegian woman. She has travelled through Abkhazia, and currently lives in Tbilisim until x-mas. Then she returns to Norway. She has some great pictures from Abkhazia, and the demonstrations in Tbilisi in November. Take my advice: Visit her blog. It's in both english and Norwegian.