US imperial strategy backfires in Georgia (audio)

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“Between Russian military and political leaders, there are differences in approach,” analyst Boris Kagarlitsky told RFI. “It is very clear that Medvedev and his team in the Kremlin, they would want this whole thing to be over as soon as possible… the longer they stay in Georgia, the less they actually get politically out of this crisis.”

But the military don’t share this desire to hurry the withdrawal, Kagarlitsky said from Moscow. The Russian military, “are now very much in control and they think that they will be able to decide when, how and which way the troops are going to be pulled out.”

“Sooner or later the political pressure from the Kremlin will affect the behavior of the military and they will start pulling troops out,” he said.

The incursion into Georgia remains very popular in Russia, Kagarlitsky said. Popular sentiment is that “given the situation in Southern Ossetia, Russian troops had to react.”

“Many people now criticize the government for reacting too late,” he added.

Russia was reacting to a recent trend amongst its neighbours to ally themselves with Nato and the West, Kagarlitsky said, and they’ve shown that the US won’t always defend its allies like Georgia to whom they’ve publically pledged their support.

“America’s client state failed, and the United States didn’t do anything to support their client state.”