US cables shed light on EU ‘Friends of Russia’ in Georgia war

A cache of secret US cables on the 2008 Russia-Georgia war paints a vivid picture of how the EU was split into ‘Russia-friendly’ and ‘Russia-hostile’ clubs, with German diplomats “parroting” Russian arguments and Latvia suggesting that Nato should consider sending arms to Georgia.

The cache of around 120 cables from US embassies around Europe covering the period from 7 August, when the war ‘officially’ began, until 19 August, about one week after it ended, was published on Wednesday (1 December) on the website of the WikiLeaks-affiliated magazine Russian Reporter.

One cable dealing with an extraordinary meeting of Nato ambassadors in Brussels on 12 August ran with the sub-heading: “Nato allies lack cohesion during first meeting on Georgia crisis.” A follow-up cable on 13 August carried the heading: “Allies divided down the middle.”

The 12 August cable, dealing with attempts to cobble together joint action on the crisis by the North Atlantic Council, saw EU and Nato members Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the UK broadly warm to proposals to suspend the Nato-Russia Council and to issue a Russia-hostile statement. But a Russia-friendly camp, led by France and Germany and including Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Spain, blocked the moves.

The 13 August talks, on whether a Russian ship, the Ladniy, should take part in a Nato exercise, pitted the same Russia-hostile camp (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the UK) against the Russia-friendly one (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovenia).

“A number of allies – especially Germany – are parroting Russian points on Georgian culpability for the crisis. Intelligence releasable to Nato allies on this point might be a useful tool,” the 12 August US cable commented. “The German-led side … is unlikely to support anything more than a slap on the Russian wrist in the upcoming Nato ministerial,” the follow-up cable said.

New divisions emerged inside the EU diplomatic forum, but the broad outlines of the split – with the Baltic states, Poland and the UK pitted against France, Germany and the Netherlands – stayed intact.