Mart Laar works for the Georgian government, so naturally he takes the Saakashvili line on Abkhazia and South Ossetia.  Mart Laar and the Georgian government were nowhere to be found when Western states recognised Kosovo, which set in motion the chain of events now leading to either the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “independent” states (which will be as dependent on Russia as Kosovo will be dependent on the West) or to their annexation into Russia, so I have to say I am not that impressed by the Georgian government’s sudden concern for legality and international peace.  At this point, annexation might be the best practical arrangement, only because the alternatives seem even worse: an attempt to reintegrate them into Georgia will mean a resumption of conflict, and the creation of two failed mini-states in the Caucasus would be a disaster.  However, I don’t really think annexation is a good idea, because it would undermine state sovereignty and destabilise Georgia, which could easily see Ajaria slip free of Tbilisi’s control as well, and possibly worst of all for Russia’s relations with the West it would feed into McCain’s myth that Russia is some “revanchist” state in neo-imperialist mode that needs to be challenged and checked (by expanding NATO, among other stupid proposals).  Georgian membership in NATO would actually make even less sense if Russia annexed Abkhazia and South Ossetia, since it all but guarantees that NATO would be drawn into an armed conflict between Georgia and these statelets, but it might become more politically feasible if it was seen as a way of “drawing a line in the sand” against supposed Russian expansion. 

You have to enjoy Laar’s lame justification for his call to action towards the end:

The west must awake and unite, not to oppose Russia or support Georgia, but to stand up for its ideals.

How do our ideals involve getting into an international controversy over mini-states in the Caucasus?  Oh, that’s right, they don’t.  Obviously, Laar thinks that the West must “awake and unite” precisely to support Georgia and oppose Russia.  That is what he has been advocating for the entire column.  However, that might seem a bit too obvious and petty, and it might be that Westerners don’t want to go to bat for the heavy-handed dictator of Tbilisi.  The partition of Serbia, unless it is reversed, will continue to provide the precedent and the pretext for this kind of destabilisation and political fragmentation in volatile parts of the world.  What seems to be happening in the North Caucasus is just one example of how partioning Serbia will come back to haunt the West for years and decades to come.