Because giving citizenship to Ossetians acts as an incentive to Georgia to not attack them. Georgia increased its military budget something like 20-fold in the past 5 years, and that wasn't going for defense.
--- On Mon, 8/18/08, Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
> From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Sad Leninism.
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Monday, August 18, 2008, 8:03 AM
> On Mon, 18 Aug 2008, Wendy Lyon wrote:
>
> >> By the way, it is a mystery how the South
> Ossetians, who live in
> >> Tskhinvali, were given Russian citizenship at a
> time when many people
> >> who have lived and worked in Russia for several
> years cannot get it.
> >> The South Ossetians do not pay the Russian taxes
> and do not serve in
> >> the Russian army. They have no duties, they have
> only rights. The
> >> Russian government is reluctant to take care of
> many of its citizens
> >> living in Russia and to protect their rights.
> >
> > Sorry if I sound like I'm beating a dead horse
> here, but again, the
> > Irish analogy works well:
> >
> > "It is a mystery how the northern Irish, who live
> in Belfast, were given
> > Irish citizenship at a time when many people who have
> lived and worked
> > in Ireland for several years cannot get it. The
> northern Irish do not
> > pay Irish taxes and do not serve in the Irish army.
> They have no duties,
> > they have only rights. The Irish government is
> reluctant to take care of
> > many of its citizens living in Ireland and to protect
> their rights."
> >
> > The above paragraph as edited is 100% factual. Anyone
> born in the part
> > of this island that is under British jurisdiction is
> entitled to Irish
> > citizenship on the same basis as those born in
> independent Ireland.
> > That's in the Irish constitution. Furthermore,
> it's widely assumed that
> > in the event of a British withdrawal, those residents
> of the north that
> > still wanted British citizenship would be granted it,
> for at least a
> > generation or two. Nobody here seems to have a problem
> with this. I
> > would be surprised if similar arrangements didn't
> exist in many other
> > disputed territories. Russia's policy of giving
> citizenship to the
> > residents of a territory that aspires to rejoin it is
> neither
> > unprecedented nor, it seems to me, particularly
> remarkable.
>
> I think you're leaving out a crucial part of the
> analogy, Wendy: nobody
> would consider this arrangement a justification for the
> Republic of
> Ireland to suddenly occupy the North on the pretext that it
> was protecting
> its citizens.
>
> Michael
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