Russia Invasion of Georgia Anniversary: West Enables Aggression
No filters. Just war as it is. Reader-supported.
Support →
The 10th Russia invasion of Georgia anniversary falls today. So let’s talk about a few things this date connects — because the pattern is impossible to ignore.
After the Sovok* collapsed, Russia launched aggressive wars consistently and without pause. Against former Soviet republics, Moscow always used the same excuse: protecting Russian-speaking populations. Georgia was attacked multiple times. Russia’s actions in Moldova and Karabakh can only be called aggression. And what Russia is doing in Ukraine is open war for territorial conquest. With Crimea, Pootin overplayed his hand and officially dropped the peacemaker mask — an open land grab in Europe, the first since Hitler.
According to Moscow, Russian speakers face oppression practically everywhere: Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, even Kazakhstan, and of course the Baltic states. These countries have completely different ethnic compositions, development paths, and trajectories. Yet Moscow insists Russians are being persecuted in all of them. Simple logic points to a simple truth — the problem isn’t those countries. The problem is Russia.
Europe Enables Every Single Aggression
None of these actions ever received a clear, firm response from Europe. As US influence over Europe — and especially its military presence — weakened, Berlin effectively inherited the lead. Germany set the tone for responses to Russian military actions. And as we know, Berlin consistently played appeasement. The maximum it could manage was freezing conflicts. Thanks to Germany’s position, we now have smoldering or active conflicts across the region — plus Karabakh and the Balkans, on the perimeter of a centuries-old abscess currently called Serbia.
The US recently changed its rhetoric toward Russia and started calling things by their real names — “aggression,” “war,” “occupation.” And right now, as Washington works out how to supply weapons to Ukraine to repel Russian aggression, voices from Berlin are calling to freeze the war — the Georgia model, the Moldova model. But German leadership in the EU hasn’t resolved a single military conflict backed by Russia. Time to call this what it is: for over 20 years, Germany has been encouraging Russia to commit aggression.
Whether Germany wants to admit it or not, it is sliding toward complicity in Russian war crimes — as an enabler. Even as Russian aggressive intent in Europe became undeniable, Germany refused to walk away from deals with Russia that remain the primary source of funding for that aggression. Acknowledging this simple fact clarifies everything happening now. And the right conclusions point toward the right actions for Ukraine — restoring its territorial integrity and sovereignty over its own land.
The Tunnel Nobody Destroyed
The second point is more abstract — but it matters deeply for how we think about the aggressor state.
By 2008, Georgia’s army had reasonable capacity to defend its territory, at least for a time. The natural defensive barrier is the Caucasus mountain range. Russia had three realistic entry routes: along the Black Sea coast near Sochi, through Chechnya, or through the Caucasus tunnel. The first two options didn’t suit the Kremlin’s calculations — they risked triggering internal domino effects among competing clans. So the tunnel became the invasion’s gateway.
Georgia knew this. In 17 years of independence, it had dozens of opportunities to destroy that tunnel so thoroughly it could never be rebuilt. It didn’t. The enemy came exactly through that point and did exactly what it did. Georgia left a convenient invasion route open by its own choice. It failed to do what it was obligated to do.
Russia Loses Every War Where It Meets Real Resistance
All of Russian history confirms one repeating fact. In every war where Russia met genuine resistance instead of silent encouragement — it lost, and lost badly. The 10th Russia invasion of Georgia anniversary is a good day to remember that.
*Sovok – sarcastic abbreviation for “Soviet Union,” derived from “Sovetskiy Soyuz”. The word also means “dustpan,” carrying a double connotation of trashiness and backwardness.