Tbilisi Braces for Russia Ukraine War

Video message of Dmitry Medvedev to Viktor Yushchenko became the main theme of the political life in Georgia yesterday. The lion's share of all the TV news coverages were occupied with this theme of how Kiev will respond to the president of Russia Medvedev. However, Georgian Ukrainian commentators are losing it to the Georgian counterparts where they seriously have started to talk about a large-scale war between Ukraine and Russia.

Georgians say that this is the essence of the entire propaganda campaign, writes the author of the Izvestia story Kiril Coloding from Tbilisi. According to the Georgian view, Russia is done with Tbilisi and now is the turn for Ukraine.

"What happened in August of last year, was not the result of our mistakes, as our opponents say, but was a well-planned strategy. Russia wants to restore the empire," says Vice-Premier of Georgia Georgy Baramidze.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Alexander Nalbandov told reporters: "One of the main tools of foreign policy of Russia has become blackmail, threat, intimidation and aggression. Russia is not able to talk with neighbors in a civilized manner."

As RIA Novosti reports "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's claims that Kiev was responsible for deteriorating relations with Moscow were aimed at President Yushchenko, not the entire country, a senior Kremlin official said on Wednesday. "There cannot be any aggression. There is a calm and balanced assertion of how the policies of Ukraine's incumbent president have affected Russian-Ukrainian relations. Therefore, the message was aimed at him [Viktor Yushchenko] personally," Alexei Gromov, a deputy Kremlin administration chief, said. He rejected comments made by Ukrainian presidential aide Vera Ulyanchenko earlier on Wednesday who said Medvedev's "aggressive" message was to the entire Ukrainian state and nation."

Colodin concludes that many people in the ruling party in Ukraine feel that Russia may in fact resort to armed conflict with Ukraine. This may happen unless the Moscow feels a rigid response from the international community.

Kremlin says that Medvedev's message is aimed at Yushchenko, not the Ukrainian nation. Presidential polls in Ukraine are slated for January 17. Yushchenko's popularity is currently in single digits.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been strained in recent years following a number of gas disputes, Ukraine's desire to join NATO and EU, and the Soviet-era famine in Ukraine.

Written by Armen Hareyan
Materials from Izvestia and RIA Novosti are used in this report.