MR. PUTIN, WILL YOU ALSO CANCEL YOUR EGO?

Update, 15 August 2008: It has been almost a week since I wrote this column. Armistice has been reached, which I am happy about, but my heart feels like an empty black hole. In the course of the week, it has become even more obvious to me that the war operation had been a glorious provocation on behalf of the Russian government. I draw this conclusion from many sources, but mainly from the diary entries and news dating from as far as half a year ago and up to the days proceeding the Georgian attack on Tskhinvali, proving that the Ossetians had been coerced to prepare for war, to shoot at Georgian villages, that many of their families had been evacuated, that the Russians had brought a lot of extra forces down to the region and even informed some Ossetian fighters about when “the war” would start.

It is both curious and ominous to observe how at least half of the Russian population did not even question what they were told on the government-controlled tv that carefully dosed its portions of hatred to achieve precise results. For example, while Tskhinvali was still occupied by the Georgians, Russian media circulated the supposed number of civilians killed – one and a half thousand. Where that number came from remains a mystery, but by now it is firmly implanted in the people's conscience, even though Tskhinvali's only hospital speaks of 44 dead and up to 300 wounded. I mourn every civilian, no matter what the number was. But reading the pre-war diaries of Ossetian fighters I realize that the Russian command had expected a large number of deaths. Or should we say, counted on ot? Until proper investigation is made, this remains a speculation of course, but the very fact that so many questions arise in the West and none of them seem to arise in the heads of the majority of the Russian public or on the Russian state tv channels – this is what makes me weep. And this week, during their official mourning days, do they realize that their government may be responsible for those innocent lives? The lives of the soldiers included, as there were drafted soldiers among the Russian troops.

And the life of the Dutch journalist Stan Storimans, who perished under a mortar attack in the Georgian Gori that Russia still denies was Russian.

In the past few days I have seen the people I trusted online succumb to the brilliant and simple tv explanations. Technically and in a short term perspective, Georgia has lost this war. But in the long term, Russia has suffered a much more severe economical and most importantly – moral loss. That loss can be defined as one more step towards the point of zero analysis done by a common citizen, who can even no longer be referred to as electorate. The past few days, coinciding with the end of President Medvedev's first 100 days in power, also finally made it clear that Putin had remained the only man making decisions and firmly occupied the non-elective position of “the national leader”.

To me, the Russian victory celebrated by many today is the same as the joy we had experienced in the few hours after the storming of the Nord-Ost theatre in 2001. Very soon we learned that the victory had been secured by the deaths of many hostages. That was when the moral death began, too, as very few Russians demanded the truth. Today , their number is yet more miniscule.

9 August 2008: Today my weekly exotic news programme Glamorama on Paris Hilton's snapping back at John McCain and revelations in the Maddy Maccan disappearance case was cancelled because a new war had begun. A war that many of us, journalists had expected. I had expected it since my talk with photographer Stanley Greene at the World Press Photo Awards in April last year. Greene has probably taken more pictures of the people of the Caucasus (especially Chechnya ) than any other Western photographer. Having spent years in and out of the region he confessed he was convinced Russia was planning an offensive in Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia as a preventive action to demonstrate control prior to the Olympics in the neighbouring Sochi in 2014. To demonstrate control or to use the Olympics as a reason to implement total control.

Yet none of us had expected to see a bombardment as vast as what we have seen so far. Russia has not only brought additional “peacekeepers” in the conflict area of Southern Ossetia, but also bombed Georgian towns that have nothing to do with Ossetia (such as Gori) and the friendly Abkhazia.

Here I should correct myself. Every time I say “ Russia ”, I should say “the Kremlin” or even simply “Putin and his clan”. Because it is not in the remotest interest of the Russian people to get involved in a war with Georgia or even to support the Southern Ossetia regime that many analysts openly call perverse and criminal. Southern Ossetian leader Kokoity has already extorted a lot of funding from Russia on various purposes under the flag of resistance against the Georgian oppression. Now Mr. Kokoity is also extorting the lives of Russian soldiers. What for? What has Russia (and now I really mean Russia and its people) got to gain in the needy Southern Ossetia except for death, isolation in European politics and waste of oil money? Why had Russia given Southern Ossetians and Abkhazians Russian passports, therefore provoking their disintegration in Georgia?

Even if we assume just for one moment that the inhumane burst of imperial outrage that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili demonstrated in his shelling of Southern Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and killing hundreds of civilians, was his personal cunning plan in no way incited or provoked by Russia's financing of the Ossetian rebels… Even if I imagine that for just one moment, I still don't understand who gave Russia (and now I mean the Kremlin) the right to invade and to bomb another country and stretch the very limited peacekeeping madate this far.

On the Russian TV, propaganda is at work, presenters acting surprised at the Western headlines that “only noticed” the conflict once Russia invaded. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is facing the cameras and I am trying to look him in the eye, but he is looking past me. “Our involvement was legally justified”, he utters. By which law?

And oh, I agree that Saakashvili has gone insane. But I've just heard a Georgian say most people in Tbilisi had criticized Saakashvili's impulsive attack on Ossetia until… Russia began to bomb the whole of Georgia. Now everyone has united around Saakashvili against the monstrous aggressor. What can be more natural?

There is only one party that is interested in this war. And that party is the security forces clan led by Putin, says Russian publicist Yulia Latynina. Putin and his gang are afraid to lose weight under the new president Medvedev. To gain more power, more coercive control of the country through organizing a small local war – has not that brought Putin political dividends before? And was not his coming down on Chechnya exactly the same if not much worse than Saakashvili's attack on Southern Ossetia? Has anyone bombed Russia then in return? Thanks god not. Maybe it's only because Russia has not got an even bigger neighbour willing to make some political profit on the lives of women and children. Or has it?..

The war that began on the date of eternity with three 8's in it may very well have been a carefully planned operation, and it can also be seen as the direct consequence of the West failing to reach common ground about Georgia 's joining NATO. Had Georgia already been part of NATO, none of this would have happened. If only I may remind that Georgia already falls under the International Criminal Court jurisdiction and Saakashvili may be indicted by The Hague. Russia does not fall under the International Criminal Court jurisdiction, but Russian command may still be indicted for crimes on the Georgian territory.

Today my programme was cancelled. Two long evenings of hard work. But I know I must cancel my ego if people's lives are at stake. Mr.Putin, will you also cancel your ego? Please?

Comment (comment will be published on the website)