... other. Grant (2009) comments that these ancient Abkhaz and Georgian identities were so strongly felt that Russia “never entirely convinced…[these people] that they were full partners alongside the rest” of the Russian Empire and the USSR, and Georgia‘s current President, Mikheil Saakashvili, “took a holy oath” as part of his presidential inauguration ceremony at Gelati, where the “greatest Georgian king of the eleventh century…is buried. By receiving the blessing ...
... new state entities have complicated and often openly hostile relations with one another, and most of all with the centre of former military, economic and political power, which is now embodied by the Russian Federation as the legal successor to the USSR. Of the 15 former republics of the Soviet Union, four have no diplomatic relations with one another (Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia and Georgia). Unregulated border disputes are the bane of practically all Central Asian states. Russia and Ukraine have not broken diplomatic relations formally, but relations between the two countries are at their lowest ebb since December 1991.
The new ...
... the official status of the national language. This was Shevardnadze’s vision of the USSR as a union of states. We can thus say that even during Soviet times, he was already laying down the foundations of the future state structure of both the USSR and Georgia.
It is an issue of principle. Political realism is not about lofty slogans about the brotherhood of nations; it is about protecting the national interests of states. Every state, especially a small one, seeks strong partners to ensure security ...
