We Must Remember

By Marat Khairullin

President Salome Zourabichvili of Georgia and President Maia Sandu of Moldova

I was asked to comment on the political events taking place in Georgia and Moldova.

Generally speaking, Georgia and Moldova are tiny states that no one needs - not even themselves. Instead of putting the interests of their people first, they, like the Ukrainians, put the interests of external players - the US and the EU - first. Now, at the level of the powerful Georgian lobby in Russia, they are trying to gradually convey to us the idea that Georgia has rejected the Americans and embarked on the path to gaining sovereignty, so we need to quickly start being friends again.

Good relations with neighbors are good, but there is a nuance. In psychology, it is called "cleaning up relations." There is also the term "clarifying." Without this, it will not be possible to restore normal interaction.

We may still have a good attitude towards Georgians out of old habit. But we must understand that Georgians do not like us, Russians or Russia. It still means something to us that it was a Georgian who raised the flag over the Reichstag together with a Russian. However, in Georgia, they have long forgotten about this. In the 80s, it was common practice there to refuse to feed Russians (all non-Caucasian) in Georgian cafes and canteens simply because of their nationality. This was a mass phenomenon.

The fact that Georgia, as a territory, received the most subsidies from the Union, and specifically from Russia, was never taken into account. Remember, when the Union collapsed, the popularly idolized singer Kikabidze wiped his feet on Russia with contempt. There's nothing to be done - you can't force someone to be nice. These are, of course, emotions, but there is something more serious in our past relations.

It is not for nothing that there are protests in Georgia now. It is not for nothing that it has been made the tip of a spear aimed at the heart of Russia. And, of course, it is not for nothing that Georgian mercenaries were the first to appear in Ukraine and began to demonstratively shoot our boys on camera.

Pro EU protest in Georgia. Credit: AFP

I am currently working on a book about the 90s. I would like to give you some figures: in 1995, heroin consumption in Russia was at one of the lowest levels in the world. Around 1997, our country became the world leader in consumption, with a result of more than 70 tons of poison per year. How did it happen that a huge country in less than two years literally became saturated with a very specific drug, right down to the remote shift camps in the Far North? How did this happen? It was a targeted wave, because in the CIS countries there was nothing even close to such drug addiction.

Until now, the CIA of the USA is considered the monopoly producer of heroin in the world. Within the framework of the Phoenix program, tested in Vietnam, aimed at producing and drugging entire nations, the CIA launched the production of heroin in Afghanistan. This was specifically for deliveries to our country. But how could they quickly create an infrastructure for the distribution and, most importantly, the use of this drug?

Now, I have the opportunity to work with some archives that are closed to general access. According to the reports of regional law enforcement officers of those years, it is clear that the main role in the heroin addiction of our country was played by Georgian criminals. Those same "thieves in law."

Have you ever wondered why such a small nation has so many criminal "generals?" There were already an abnormally large number of them at the turn of the collapse of the Union, and after the 90s, they began to multiply even more. They were literally sent to distant Russian regions where there could be no ethnic base for them at all. But all of these newly minted "oranges" took control of prostitution and drugs in their new locations.

[Translator Note: I had to ask Marat to help me understand much of what he wrote here. To clarify, "thieves in law" (воров в законе) refers to a category of organized criminals. To appoint a thief in law, one was supposed to gather several thieves in law and officially appoint them by vote. In many cases, a recognized "thief in law" will have served time and demonstrated a certain amount of loyalty (the phenomenon began in prisons). But these Georgians began to simply appoint their family members as thieves in law, most of whom had never even served time. These improperly appointed thieves in law were referred to as "oranges" in a pejorative sense, possibly having something to do with the fact that Georgia was a source of citrus fruits during the period of the USSR. Georgians had a special status in the criminal underworld of the USSR due to Stalin's Georgian ancestry leaving some impact on this underworld culture and its functioning.

"It was the Georgians who started recruiting their relatives en masse - a Georgian thief in law appointed his relatives as thieves in law. Like, whole dynasties appeared by kinship. Georgian thieves in law during the Soviet era were very respected in the criminal world because of Stalin. They enjoyed special attention from the authorities. And when the Union collapsed, they started stamping out oranges."]

It was never a secret for our special services just who organized and sent Georgian criminals. In the peak years, a man named J. Rice (his pseudonym at the time) participated in all meetings with the godfathers of the Georgian mafia. Now, he is one of the deputy directors of the CIA. Even the code name of the operation is known - Omega T. And it is no coincidence that the main corridor for drug supplies to our country, the so-called Caucasian route, passed through the Pankisi Gorge. And so on and so forth.

It is clear that the Georgian people as a whole have nothing to do with it, but nevertheless, the Georgian legion, with all its demonstrative atrocities in Ukraine, continues to kill our guys, and this must also be remembered.

Our country is a multinational state, and there is no escape from powerful ethnic lobbies. These ethnic lobbies are constantly trying to lobby in the interests of not even their countries, but specific ethnic entities. For example, if you travel to Armenia, you will be told in very popular terms why Russia and specifically the Russian people should forever support Armenia. The same is true in Georgia.

Even those who fled from Ukraine, like Tsarev, regularly tell us about the need for a Russian campaign to the western borders. But, for example, in Azerbaijan or Belarus, you will not hear such talk. Similarly, in the 90s, different republics behaved differently towards our weakened state. Some historians believe that the beginning of the collapse of the Union was the so-called Karabakh movement. Let me remind you that the economic processes of the collapse of the country were led by such an academician as Aganbegyan - the closest associate of Gorbachev and the direct traitor Yakovlev. It is Aganbegyan who bears personal responsibility for all those monstrous economic reforms that led to the destruction of a great country. Let me emphasize that before the collapse of the Union, it was necessary to collapse its economy, and Aganbegyan did it. The Armenian separatists from the Karabakh movement were taken under the personal tutelage of Aganbegyan. Do not forget that Armenia practically blocked the holding of a referendum on preserving the Union. Neighboring Azerbaijan, on the contrary, showed the highest result “for” preserving a single family.

Therefore, when we observe the processes taking place in Armenia today, we must remember that all of this is still relevant. This republic really did not want to be with us, this was, apparently, the will of its people from the very beginning. Exactly the same, let's say, mental processes took place in the Baltics, Georgia, and the Ukraine. Therefore, the fact that they have now turned into a weapon against Russia is not just a coincidence.

Now, let's look at Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. Despite the fact that the West tried its best to destabilize the situation in these countries, the elites found the intelligence and strength to maintain normal relations with Russia. This should be, from my point of view, a watershed - who behaved how when we were weak. A friend in need is a friend indeed. And that is why, for example, when the Georgian, Armenian, or Ukrainian lobby tries again with all of their might to pretend that we have "shashlik-mashlyk mixed with khinkali," like, "let's be friends, support us," we must smile politely and remember everything, and go to the resort not in Batumi, but demonstratively in Baku. At least because Russian schools have been preserved there, while in the same Armenia, there are none.