Sadly, Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili played into the Russians' hands.

Georgia is a country the size of Wales, with a notable history.
It is in a strategically key position, sitting between the Caspian
and Black seas, between Russia and the Middle East, between key oil fields and essential oil outlets.

Despite its size, until recently three provinces were in dispute. Adzharia, in the south-west, was also on the verge of breaking away. President Saakashvili scored a significant achievement in reuniting Adzharia with the rest of Georgia. Even here, however, it was Western diplomacy that was the key; an impulsive and over-aggressive approach was dampened down to produce a positive result.

Georgia represents a significant example of the "success" of former Soviet policies. Industry was parcelled up within the former Soviet Union. Cars were fabricated in one place but the separate parts built in a variety of republics; destroy the union and you destroyed individual economies.

Similarly, the dispersion of Russian nationals across the union was part of the sovietisation of each province and country. In Estonia and the Baltic republics, the path to independence was made more complex through the presence of up to 40 per cent of the population being ethnic Russians or married to ethnic Russians.

This is not true of mainstream Georgia, but it is the case in Ossetia and Abkhazia. Saakashvili's recent military adventurism thus affected not only the Ossetian nationals but also large numbers of Russians as the conflict unfolded.

There is a further irony, for Joseph Djugashvili, better known to us as Joe Stalin, was a native Georgian. Born in Gori, where, interestingly, the Russian advance has halted, Stalin became one of the key fashioners of the mid-20th century and an architect of the Cold War.

He was also the most cruel hammer of his native land; the death (largely by starvation) of 14 million Kulaks can be put down to his name.

Lastly, and by no means least, Stalin started out his adult life as a seminary – he was in training to become a priest of the Orthodox Church. This, in itself, leads us into the darkest of all Georgian ironies – the ambivalence of Christian observance.

Alongside neighbouring Armenia, Georgia claims an inheritance as
one of the two earliest Christian nations. It was St Nino, a young woman from Asia Minor, who was the key missionary to Georgia in the fourth century.

Georgia's Christian faith has determined her national identity; for many, despite 70 years of enforced communist atheism, to be Orthodox was and still is to be Georgian.

The Byzantine roots of this tradition, however, led to much ambiguity. In order to survive, Orthodox Christianity in the former Soviet Union had to compromise with the régime. Indeed, on occasion, the KGB used Orthodox clergy as part of their international espionage network.

This has left Georgia with a mixed Christian inheritance. Still within Georgian Orthodoxy there are strong pro-Russian elements; some will look to recent events with encouragement and even enthusiasm. Where does this leave the West?

Crucial is the response from Western churches, supporting Georgian democracy and offering support to those Christians who have spoken with courage.

Key here has been the voice of the small Baptist Church under the leadership of Malkhaz Songulashvili. Archbishop of a minority church, he has acted and spoken courageously. During the Chechen war, he organised refugee camps in north-eastern Georgia. He has helped to co-ordinate courageous responses to oppression from all the churches and from the Jewish and Islamic communities. He has very strong links with England and needs all the support he can get.

But there is a message to governments, too. Britain, the EU and the US need to do more than make postured protests. Military intervention would be highly dangerous and counter-productive. Economic support, however, is both feasible and essential.

BP have invested and also benefited from the key Azabaijani-Georgian pipeline. Now is the time to show real and determined economic support for Georgia despite the problems of the world economy.

We owe it to the Georgian people for the benefits we have received and, indeed, for basic humanitarian reasons. Such economic support is also, however, an essential element in building a more stable world order. Like the Middle East, the Caucasus is a strategic flashpoint.

If Georgia was an accident waiting to happen, then no more accidents can be afforded. Put in vulgar terms, we must put our money where our mouth is – and our spirit must be there, too.


Stephen Platten is the Bishop of Wakefield and a spokesman for Georgian affairs in the Church of England.