Russia agreed on Monday to completely withdraw its troops from Georgia's heartland within a month, but there was no commitment to scale back its military presence in two Georgian separatist regions. ...
"As for recognition, for us that issue is closed. From the point of view of international law, for us two new states have appeared," Medvedev said, standing alongside Sarkozy.
Medvedev said the deal on Russian troops withdrawals was made possible after the EU, represented by rotating president France, offered guarantees that pro-Western Georgia would refrain from any use of force against its separatist regions.
Actually, I don't worry about the separatist regions. Good riddance. Georgia will find this unexpected favor by Moscow paves the way for their NATO membership.
I imagine that the main obstacle to Georgia's entry into NATO was the worry that the enclaves would spark a NATO-Russia war should Georgia attempt to retake them. Were I god of NATO, I'd insist that Georgia renounce the use of force to recover the provinces. Tbilisi doesn't have to accept or recognize Russia's actions, but they can't expect NATO, a defensive alliance, to go to war to retrieve people who want to leave Georgia.
So, freed of the obsession of regaining lost lands, Georgia can focus on building up their conventional defenses, their democracy, and their economy, as part of the NATO-defended West.
In a generation, the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia will be begging to rejoin Georgia and become part of the prosperous West.
