SUNDAY HERALD EDITORIAL

The world has held its breath as Russia and America exchange increasingly belligerent rhetoric over the South Ossetian crisis, the worst we have heard since the end of the Cold War. Moscow has even hinted at possible nuclear retaliation for the siting of American missiles in Poland. Some see in the crisis in the Caucasus shades of Sarajevo in August 1914, when the world stumbled into war almost accidentally after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

While there is little risk of South Ossetia igniting world war three, there is a risk of international relations becoming soured, not least by the intensely anti-Russian rhetoric of some in the West.

Russia has been accused by the US of aggression against Georgia and of violating international law by interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. We hold no brief for Vladimir Putin, the hardman prime minister of Russia who has manipulated the democratic system to ensure his continued rule. The continued presence of Russian tanks in Georgia, despite signing the ceasefire accord, is alarming and Moscow must withdraw.

However, the hypocrisy of the Americans - who so recently usurped the sovereignty of Iraq with British help and killed tens of thousands of civilians in the process - is appalling. The Russians claim their intervention was humanitarian - so did we. This looks like a story of one law for America, another for the rest of the world. The Russian defence of the citizens of South Ossetia was similar to the actions of Western countries in 1999 when they bombed Serbian army positions to protect the people of the breakaway province of Kosovo. The Russians did not start the war. It was the Georgian leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, who launched a bloody assault on the South Ossetian town of Tskhinvali under cover of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. There is evidence that rocket launchers were used against a civilian population. This was a shocking act of war and there is no doubt that the Georgian action killed many civilians.

Russia has been accused of having territorial ambitions in Georgia and of wanting regime change in Tbilisi, but the West was accused of exactly the same thing when we bombed Belgrade and sought the removal from power of the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. In fact, it is far from clear that the Russians do intend to annex Georgia.

Comparisons with the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 are wide of the mark. This has not been an attempt to overthrow the legitimate government of Georgia. As the former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, has pointed out, the roots of the tragedy lie in the attempts by Georgia since 1991 to extinguish South Ossetian autonomy.

The solution should be to establish some form of federal arrangement that gives the communities of the Caucasus control of their own destinies, free from interference. Gorbachev's has been a voice of reason amid the cacophony of recrimination. South Ossetia cannot simply be handed back to Georgia now. The people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have a right to self-determination. It is up to them to decide their fate, not Washington or Moscow. In the meantime, the best way forward is for both sides to ratchet down the rhetoric and stop playing Cold War games.