Moscow Canned Goods

Store shelves in Moscow are full here. Why is that important?

Whenever a real crisis develops, the well read population empties the store shelves of canned food-usually fish. What it means is that the Georgian and soon to be Abhazian crises are of local Russian manufacture.

For years, the Soviets salted outlying provinces with ethnic Russians so that later they would have a “legitimate Sudetenland ” like pretext for recapture or at least neutralization. For example, in the Baltic states Russia has spouted about the defacing and removal of statues and monuments to Soviet “liberators”. Ethnic Russians rioted and local government got the message.

In Azerbaijan, the real goal is to keep the oil pipeline going through Russian Krasnodar—not directly to Turkey. Russia’s Ghurkas in this case are the Armenians. Alleged Azeri abuse of the Armenian Christian enclave in Nagorno Karabakh is pretext for intimidation, again aimed at the oil pipeline.

To understand any of this, consider the continuing geopolitical legacy from Ivan the Awesome-usually translated “The Terrible” in the west, but more like awesome to the Russians followed by Peter the Great and the rest. Beware of Russian translations targeted to the West. As with Arafat of old, one thing is said in Russian yet mitigated in English. A good example was Troyanovsky’s translation of Khruschev’s “heel banging diplomacy” speech in Vienna during the Gary Powers incident. Remember that the Russian eagle is

two headed–two faced and split tongued.

The old Russian parable of the farmer encroaching on his neighbor comes to mind. His reason to the court “I was only interested in that tiny piece of land that touched mine” !!!