The soft power of hard states
Arvamus | 23 Mar 2010  | EWR OnlineEWR
Daniel Korski, ecfr.eu

Two years ago, in the heat of the war over South Ossetia, Russian president Vladimir Putin said he wanted to hang Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili from a Tbilisi lamppost. Although Russia's military finished its job and defeated Georgia's forces, Mr Putin failed to finish his. President Saakashvili not only escaped the lamppost - he remains well-ensconced in the presidential palace in Tbilisi.

So what was it that stopped Russia from ousting President Saakashvili and installing a pro-Kremlin government? It certainly was not a lack of military power - Russian tanks were only miles away from Georgia's capital. Nor could it have been a lack of will; Russia's Vladimir Putin is not one for making idle threats. Could it have been a lack of "soft" power, an inability by the Kremlin to portray its actions as being at the service of something greater than simply Russian domination?

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Arvamus