Seventeen years have passed since the five-day war that marked the beginning of the Russian Federation’s military campaign to dismantle the European security order, first in Georgia, then in Ukraine, and possibly other places in the not-so-distant future. On August 7, 2008, Russia launched its invasion of Georgia from the land, sea, air, and cyber – on an unheard-of scale at that time. The tanks that rolled into the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia and Abkhazia marked the first time Russia deployed its military beyond its borders to punish a neighbor for choosing Europe over empire. It was the first act of a long war against the idea that small sovereign nations in Russia’s neighborhood could choose Europe and detach themselves from “mother Russia.”
The cover of this issue borrows from Natural Born Killers — a fitting metaphor for the Kremlin’s behavior since 2008. The image portrays Russia as a serial aggressor that tried to assassinate Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 – all three times unsuccessfully. The killer returned to the scene — again and again — because the crime was never stopped the first time. The war against Georgia was a prelude to a longer hybrid military and political campaign against the European security order, being fought in military theaters, on the diplomatic stage, and in the information space. The refusal to confront this aggression decisively in 2008 made everything else possible. The refusal to confront it now head-on will make everything else inevitable...
... the war against Georgia never ended. It simply changed form and terrain. From bombs to banks, from bullets to broadcasts, from occupations to narratives — Russia has adapted, but never paused. This issue revisits August 2008 not out of nostalgia, but out of urgency. We are not remembering the first shot. We are warning that the killer is still at large.
Attached File
