Georgia

Pulitzer Center Staff

Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer spoke to the World Affairs Council of Houston Tuesday night (8/26), addressing the Caucasus conflict -- its roots, the media coverage of the Georgia/Russia war, and likely repercussions. He drew on his own reporting from Georgia and South Ossetia two years ago and on the current Pulitzer-funded reporting by Jason Maloney, Kira Kay and Zygmunt Dziesciolowski.

They've dreamed about it for years. In 1999, in a national referendum, Abkhazia's citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence. When I met top Abkhaz politicians only few weeks ago, "independence" and "sovereign state" were terms they used frequently and longingly. For them, return to Georgia was simply unacceptable. They called Russia their "window to the world". However, they also remembered periods during the Yeltsin years when their neighbor to the North did not always seem to be a reliable ally.

Zygmunt Dzieciolowski has been contributing to Russian radio stations on the Georgian conflict and its consequences. Videographer Jason Maloney, who is on the ground with Dzieciolowski, says that “this is extremely important from the perspective that he's really filling a void here, where there is really no other independent reporting available in the Russian language." Dzieciolowski spoke to the following stations:
 

Russian troops and tanks may have at least partially completed their pull-out from territory seized during its August 8 blitz of this tiny post-Soviet country, but that should be little reason to celebrate, as the real (if creeping) catastrophe has just begun.

Special correspondent Kira Kay reports on the political tensions within Georgia's breakaway province Abkhazia. This report was produced in partnership with The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and The Bureau for International Reporting, and is a co-production with HDNet.

Excerpt translated by Elena Kristalinski

US President George Bush considers Russia's actions towards Georgia "absolutely unacceptable". In Bush's opinion, Russia has to act decisively to put an end to the crisis, and repair the damage that was inflicted on Russia's relations with the neighboring countries, European Union and USA. Independent Polish journalist Zigmund Dzincholovsky, who happened to be in Tbilisi during the military standoff, compared how the events in the Caucasus were viewed by the different countries.

World Report is inside Georgia before and during the Russian onslaught, with exclusive access inside disputed territories. We look beyond the military story, at the roots of this conflict, America's involvement, and whether it might lead to a bigger, more dangerous fight.

Aired August 19, 2008

More information from HDNet.

Pulitzer Center Staff

Thomas Goltz, special to the Pulitzer Center

That Mikhail Saakashvili's Georgia would eventually come into direct conflict with its huge neighbor to the north, the Russian Federation, was long a given.

Freelance video journalist Jason Maloney, who was filming in Georgia for the Pulitzer Center at the time of the fighting, describes the tensions that preceded the clashes and the impacts on the region. (MP3)

Listen to Jason's dispatch at Newshour.

Pulitzer Center Staff

Freelance video journalist Jason Maloney, who was filming in Georgia for the Pulitzer Center at the time of the fighting, describes the tensions that preceded the clashes and the impacts on the region. (MP3)

Listen to Jason's dispatch on Newshour.com