http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/opinion/22iht-edlet.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
Letters to the Editor
Published: August 21, 2009
While many of the aspirations Georgians, Abkhazians and South Ossetians are divergent, as described by Oksana Antonenko (“Grim expectations,” Views, Aug. 14), there are some hopeful signs in their relationships.
Georgians, Abkhazians and South Ossetians are already engaging in the kind of informal dialogues that Oksana Antonenko calls for, and these discussions are having an effect. An informal dialogue among Georgians and South Ossetians which I facilitated in March concluded that water issues were an area that both groups wanted to resolve quickly. An official agreement on irrigation and drinking water was signed in Geneva in July.
The international community can support these dialogues by acknowledging and celebrating influential local participants who bravely meet informally in efforts to prevent a return to war.
Susan Allen Nan, Silver Spring, Maryland,
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
South Ossetia Tries to Disarm Its Citizens
By ELLEN BARRY
Published: August 14, 2009
TSKHINVALI, Georgia — For years, there was not much difference between a civilian and a soldier in South Ossetia, which was embroiled in a long struggle to separate from Georgia.
David G. Sanakoyev, for example, wore a tie during the day. As South Ossetia’s ombudsman for human rights, he handled complaints about prison conditions or unlawful firings. Three times a week, after work, he changed into camouflage and took up a position at the territory’s border, rotating in and out of combat duty until morning.
Then he put his suit back on, and returned to his desk — a pattern interrupted only once, he recalled, when he was shot through the thigh in a Georgian ambush.
This has been the strange way of life inside South Ossetia, on and off, since the end of the Soviet Union. The tiny population of this valley — factory workers, university students, farmers and smugglers — has been turned into a loosely organized fighting force, deployed along the boundary that separates South Ossetia from Georgian-controlled territory.
Now, with Russia guaranteeing its security, South Ossetia is asking residents to turn in their weapons voluntarily. The police have opened 50 criminal prosecutions for illegal weapons and plan to offer $300 to $400 for each Kalashnikov rifle, a top official said.
The program is a test of confidence, a year after the war between Russia and Georgia.
Mr. Sanakoyev said he had never owned a gun but felt it was still too early to disarm.
“Life has changed,” he said. “But inside, you don’t yet feel that life has changed.”
Twenty years ago, few people in this valley were armed. The first clash between Ossetians and Georgians was fought with wooden bats and hunting rifles in 1989, after an estimated 12,000 Georgian demonstrators surrounded Tskhinvali to protest its first separatist bid. In the two days of violence that followed, six people died, according to Human Rights Watch.
That began a great surge of arming. Timur Tskhovrebov, then working as a tomato farmer, became “a specialist in stealing from Soviet warehouses,” he recalled, with a broad, reminiscent smile. The commander of a 10-man local militia, he would bribe a sentry, throw a mattress over the barbed-wire fence, and clamber in and out, arms loaded with weapons, for two hours until the next sentry arrived.
“This is only one way,” said Mr. Tskhovrebov, 51. “It’s the most honest way. You just steal them.”
As they withdrew into Russian territory, Soviet troops were ready to make deals, in any case. A Kalashnikov could be traded for a Zhiguli or Lada car or, in the case of villagers, a cow. Whole arsenals, put up for sale in Chechnya, supplied South Ossetia.
Irina Kozayeva, a 74-year-old woman with a cloud of hennaed hair, recalled the awe she felt at her first major purchase: a 12.7-caliber machine gun, a World War II-era weapon often mounted on Soviet tanks and capable of shooting down aircraft.
“When I saw it, I closed the door and laid it down on the rug,” she said. “I almost fainted. The sight of such a weapon can make you crazy.”
Ossetians’ attachment to their weapons grew fierce during those years, said Dmitri Medoyev, South Ossetia’s ambassador to Russia. Before the first clashes, authorities in Georgia had stripped many Ossetian hunters of their rifles, and then the Soviet Army twice betrayed Ossetia by withdrawing its forces, Mr. Medoyev said, so “we, the population, cannot trust anyone.”
In addition to a small army, Tskhinvali contrived a defense based on the Swiss armed forces, in which every adult man was required to show up, prepared to fight, during periods of tension.
For an Ossetian, Mr. Medoyev said, “a weapon is an essential part of daily life, his worldview, his accessory, if you will.” Asked how many guns were owned privately, he said, “As many as there are people in the population, that’s how many weapons there are.”
“Of course,” he added, “I’m not counting small children.”
But conditions have changed since last August, said Vitaly G. Gassiyev, South Ossetia’s first deputy interior minister. At a brand-new Russian base in Tskhinvali, dozens of tanks and self-propelled artillery are lined up a few minutes’ drive from Georgian positions, making it unlikely that Ossetian volunteers will be called to the front anytime soon.
By disarming, Mr. Gassiyev said, South Ossetia was using the lessons Russia had learned in the north Caucasus, where wars left a residue of crime, with “guns in hands and lots of uncontrolled elements.”
Two weeks ago, the call went out for people to turn in their arms voluntarily. So far, the police have collected or confiscated 100 machine guns — among them 15 American-made M-4 carbines, presumably lost by Georgian soldiers — and 110 pounds of explosives. In the near future, the police are planning to offer citizens from $370 to $470 in exchange for turning in guns and other weapons.
“I think the project will work without question,” Mr. Gassiyev said. “There is a guarantee of security now.”
When the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe tried to sell this idea to Ossetia’s populace several years ago, it was met with ridicule, recalled Magdalena Frichova, who monitored the conflict in South Ossetia for 10 years for the International Crisis Group. But last year’s war has transformed the dynamics in Ossetia, she added, and Russia may feel a need to ensure control in a region where small militias have thrived.
“This is the fear for the Russians, that it’s going to become like the north Caucasus,” Ms. Frichova said. “You have all these armed groups that aren’t under a command.”
Nerves were still strung tight last week at a border post south of Tskhinvali. The Russian border patrol was nowhere in sight, and two Ossetian men, one in camouflage, were watching cows grazing in no man’s land, waiting for something to happen, just as they have for 18 years. A Georgian police post in Ergneti was visible through the summer foliage. Five days before, the two men said, a rocket-propelled grenade was shot from the Georgian side and exploded in the air.
“If you call someone your brother, but he shoots at you, is he still your brother?” said the man in camouflage, his face weathered by the sun. “For 18 years, they have devoured us. They are jackals, jackals.” He refused to give his name.
His friend, Timur, 39, had left military service after the war, and was watching in slacks and a turtleneck. This year has been quiet, he allowed, but not calm, not yet. Asked about the government’s program to collect weapons, he grinned mischievously.
“Officially, I have given up my gun,” he said.
Published: August 14, 2009
TSKHINVALI, Georgia — For years, there was not much difference between a civilian and a soldier in South Ossetia, which was embroiled in a long struggle to separate from Georgia.
David G. Sanakoyev, for example, wore a tie during the day. As South Ossetia’s ombudsman for human rights, he handled complaints about prison conditions or unlawful firings. Three times a week, after work, he changed into camouflage and took up a position at the territory’s border, rotating in and out of combat duty until morning.
Then he put his suit back on, and returned to his desk — a pattern interrupted only once, he recalled, when he was shot through the thigh in a Georgian ambush.
This has been the strange way of life inside South Ossetia, on and off, since the end of the Soviet Union. The tiny population of this valley — factory workers, university students, farmers and smugglers — has been turned into a loosely organized fighting force, deployed along the boundary that separates South Ossetia from Georgian-controlled territory.
Now, with Russia guaranteeing its security, South Ossetia is asking residents to turn in their weapons voluntarily. The police have opened 50 criminal prosecutions for illegal weapons and plan to offer $300 to $400 for each Kalashnikov rifle, a top official said.
The program is a test of confidence, a year after the war between Russia and Georgia.
Mr. Sanakoyev said he had never owned a gun but felt it was still too early to disarm.
“Life has changed,” he said. “But inside, you don’t yet feel that life has changed.”
Twenty years ago, few people in this valley were armed. The first clash between Ossetians and Georgians was fought with wooden bats and hunting rifles in 1989, after an estimated 12,000 Georgian demonstrators surrounded Tskhinvali to protest its first separatist bid. In the two days of violence that followed, six people died, according to Human Rights Watch.
That began a great surge of arming. Timur Tskhovrebov, then working as a tomato farmer, became “a specialist in stealing from Soviet warehouses,” he recalled, with a broad, reminiscent smile. The commander of a 10-man local militia, he would bribe a sentry, throw a mattress over the barbed-wire fence, and clamber in and out, arms loaded with weapons, for two hours until the next sentry arrived.
“This is only one way,” said Mr. Tskhovrebov, 51. “It’s the most honest way. You just steal them.”
As they withdrew into Russian territory, Soviet troops were ready to make deals, in any case. A Kalashnikov could be traded for a Zhiguli or Lada car or, in the case of villagers, a cow. Whole arsenals, put up for sale in Chechnya, supplied South Ossetia.
Irina Kozayeva, a 74-year-old woman with a cloud of hennaed hair, recalled the awe she felt at her first major purchase: a 12.7-caliber machine gun, a World War II-era weapon often mounted on Soviet tanks and capable of shooting down aircraft.
“When I saw it, I closed the door and laid it down on the rug,” she said. “I almost fainted. The sight of such a weapon can make you crazy.”
Ossetians’ attachment to their weapons grew fierce during those years, said Dmitri Medoyev, South Ossetia’s ambassador to Russia. Before the first clashes, authorities in Georgia had stripped many Ossetian hunters of their rifles, and then the Soviet Army twice betrayed Ossetia by withdrawing its forces, Mr. Medoyev said, so “we, the population, cannot trust anyone.”
In addition to a small army, Tskhinvali contrived a defense based on the Swiss armed forces, in which every adult man was required to show up, prepared to fight, during periods of tension.
For an Ossetian, Mr. Medoyev said, “a weapon is an essential part of daily life, his worldview, his accessory, if you will.” Asked how many guns were owned privately, he said, “As many as there are people in the population, that’s how many weapons there are.”
“Of course,” he added, “I’m not counting small children.”
But conditions have changed since last August, said Vitaly G. Gassiyev, South Ossetia’s first deputy interior minister. At a brand-new Russian base in Tskhinvali, dozens of tanks and self-propelled artillery are lined up a few minutes’ drive from Georgian positions, making it unlikely that Ossetian volunteers will be called to the front anytime soon.
By disarming, Mr. Gassiyev said, South Ossetia was using the lessons Russia had learned in the north Caucasus, where wars left a residue of crime, with “guns in hands and lots of uncontrolled elements.”
Two weeks ago, the call went out for people to turn in their arms voluntarily. So far, the police have collected or confiscated 100 machine guns — among them 15 American-made M-4 carbines, presumably lost by Georgian soldiers — and 110 pounds of explosives. In the near future, the police are planning to offer citizens from $370 to $470 in exchange for turning in guns and other weapons.
“I think the project will work without question,” Mr. Gassiyev said. “There is a guarantee of security now.”
When the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe tried to sell this idea to Ossetia’s populace several years ago, it was met with ridicule, recalled Magdalena Frichova, who monitored the conflict in South Ossetia for 10 years for the International Crisis Group. But last year’s war has transformed the dynamics in Ossetia, she added, and Russia may feel a need to ensure control in a region where small militias have thrived.
“This is the fear for the Russians, that it’s going to become like the north Caucasus,” Ms. Frichova said. “You have all these armed groups that aren’t under a command.”
Nerves were still strung tight last week at a border post south of Tskhinvali. The Russian border patrol was nowhere in sight, and two Ossetian men, one in camouflage, were watching cows grazing in no man’s land, waiting for something to happen, just as they have for 18 years. A Georgian police post in Ergneti was visible through the summer foliage. Five days before, the two men said, a rocket-propelled grenade was shot from the Georgian side and exploded in the air.
“If you call someone your brother, but he shoots at you, is he still your brother?” said the man in camouflage, his face weathered by the sun. “For 18 years, they have devoured us. They are jackals, jackals.” He refused to give his name.
His friend, Timur, 39, had left military service after the war, and was watching in slacks and a turtleneck. This year has been quiet, he allowed, but not calm, not yet. Asked about the government’s program to collect weapons, he grinned mischievously.
“Officially, I have given up my gun,” he said.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Putin Pledges to Fortify, Defend Breakaway Abkhazia
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a0hA7f4GgZW4
By Lyubov Pronina and Helena Bedwell
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Russia will spend as much as 16 billion rubles ($487 million) in 2010 to develop its military base in Abkhazia and fortify the border of the separatist Georgian region, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today, a year after Russia’s five-day war with Georgia.
Russia recognized Abkhazia as a sovereign country after the war over another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia. Russia has deployed thousands of troops in the two regions and agreed to defend their borders.
On a visit to the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi today, the first anniversary of a European Union-brokered cease-fire agreement that brought the fighting to an end, Putin renewed Russia’s pledge to defend Abkhazia against attack and to help the region rebuild its economy.
“The Abkhaz people will succeed in reviving their economy as Russia continues to give systemic economic and political -- and, if needed, military -- support,” Putin told reporters after talks with Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh.
Russia has deployed 1,700 soldiers in Abkhazia and will increase that number to 3,636 by the end of this year when renovations are completed at its military base in the region, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters, adding that no further troop increase is planned.
‘Illegal’ Entry
The number of Russian military personnel stationed in South Ossetia is slightly smaller, Serdyukov said. Russia has military cooperation agreements with both regions.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Nalbandov said Putin’s trip to Sukhumi was “illegal,” because Georgian law forbids entry to the region from Russia. Georgia regards Abkhazia and South Ossetia as occupied territories. Apart from Russia, only Nicaragua has recognized the regions’ sovereignty.
“It’s no coincidence that Putin’s visiting today,” Nalbandov said. “It’s a planned provocation aimed at challenging the international community, because the cease-fire agreement was signed one year ago today.”
Georgia and its Western allies, including the U.S., say Russia has failed to meet its obligations under the cease-fire, specifically the requirement in the Aug. 12, 2008, agreement to withdraw its troops to their pre-war positions.
Black Sea Base
Russia insists that it has implemented the cease-fire agreement. In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who led the EU’s mediation effort last year, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Aug. 8 that Russia had “fulfilled its obligations” under the agreement “in full” by last October. Medvedev hailed the cease-fire as the “only ‘code of conduct’ in this part of the Caucasus.”
Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of Georgia’s Security Council, said Russia’s military spending in Abkhazia is aimed at bolstering its military presence on the Black Sea.
“Abkhazia wasn’t chosen for nothing,” Tkeshelashvili said by telephone in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. “We always knew that the Soviet-era base at Gudauta was operational anyway. Now they’re talking again and clearly they have further plans for these bases.”
The town of Gudauta is located on the Black Sea coast a short distance from Sochi, the Russian resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Bagapsh said in December that Abkhazia plans to benefit from the Olympics construction boom in Sochi by supplying building materials such as road metal, sand and trim stone.
‘Military Outposts’
Nalbandov said Russia’s military buildup in Abkhazia and South Ossetia “proves once more that these territories will be nothing but Russian military outposts.”
Putin said he hopes Abkhazia can achieve a level of prosperity similar to that enjoyed by small countries in Europe such as San Marino and Monaco, which have “special relations” with their neighbors.
“Monaco has a special relationship with France,” Putin said. “So the fact that a special relationship is developing between Russia and Abkhazia is an entirely normal thing.”
Putin said Russia gave Abkhazia about 2.5 billion rubles this year to support the region’s budget and will give “slightly less” in 2010.
Abkhazia requested a loan of as much as 1.5 billion rubles from Russia, Bagapsh said in May. In March, Russia pledged 5.16 billion rubles of economic aid to Abkhazia and South Ossetia to help the regions balance their budgets and meet expenses, such as pensions and state salaries.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Sukhumi at lpronina@bloomberg.net; Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at hbedwell@bloomberg.net
By Lyubov Pronina and Helena Bedwell
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Russia will spend as much as 16 billion rubles ($487 million) in 2010 to develop its military base in Abkhazia and fortify the border of the separatist Georgian region, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today, a year after Russia’s five-day war with Georgia.
Russia recognized Abkhazia as a sovereign country after the war over another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia. Russia has deployed thousands of troops in the two regions and agreed to defend their borders.
On a visit to the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi today, the first anniversary of a European Union-brokered cease-fire agreement that brought the fighting to an end, Putin renewed Russia’s pledge to defend Abkhazia against attack and to help the region rebuild its economy.
“The Abkhaz people will succeed in reviving their economy as Russia continues to give systemic economic and political -- and, if needed, military -- support,” Putin told reporters after talks with Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh.
Russia has deployed 1,700 soldiers in Abkhazia and will increase that number to 3,636 by the end of this year when renovations are completed at its military base in the region, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters, adding that no further troop increase is planned.
‘Illegal’ Entry
The number of Russian military personnel stationed in South Ossetia is slightly smaller, Serdyukov said. Russia has military cooperation agreements with both regions.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Nalbandov said Putin’s trip to Sukhumi was “illegal,” because Georgian law forbids entry to the region from Russia. Georgia regards Abkhazia and South Ossetia as occupied territories. Apart from Russia, only Nicaragua has recognized the regions’ sovereignty.
“It’s no coincidence that Putin’s visiting today,” Nalbandov said. “It’s a planned provocation aimed at challenging the international community, because the cease-fire agreement was signed one year ago today.”
Georgia and its Western allies, including the U.S., say Russia has failed to meet its obligations under the cease-fire, specifically the requirement in the Aug. 12, 2008, agreement to withdraw its troops to their pre-war positions.
Black Sea Base
Russia insists that it has implemented the cease-fire agreement. In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who led the EU’s mediation effort last year, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Aug. 8 that Russia had “fulfilled its obligations” under the agreement “in full” by last October. Medvedev hailed the cease-fire as the “only ‘code of conduct’ in this part of the Caucasus.”
Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of Georgia’s Security Council, said Russia’s military spending in Abkhazia is aimed at bolstering its military presence on the Black Sea.
“Abkhazia wasn’t chosen for nothing,” Tkeshelashvili said by telephone in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. “We always knew that the Soviet-era base at Gudauta was operational anyway. Now they’re talking again and clearly they have further plans for these bases.”
The town of Gudauta is located on the Black Sea coast a short distance from Sochi, the Russian resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Bagapsh said in December that Abkhazia plans to benefit from the Olympics construction boom in Sochi by supplying building materials such as road metal, sand and trim stone.
‘Military Outposts’
Nalbandov said Russia’s military buildup in Abkhazia and South Ossetia “proves once more that these territories will be nothing but Russian military outposts.”
Putin said he hopes Abkhazia can achieve a level of prosperity similar to that enjoyed by small countries in Europe such as San Marino and Monaco, which have “special relations” with their neighbors.
“Monaco has a special relationship with France,” Putin said. “So the fact that a special relationship is developing between Russia and Abkhazia is an entirely normal thing.”
Putin said Russia gave Abkhazia about 2.5 billion rubles this year to support the region’s budget and will give “slightly less” in 2010.
Abkhazia requested a loan of as much as 1.5 billion rubles from Russia, Bagapsh said in May. In March, Russia pledged 5.16 billion rubles of economic aid to Abkhazia and South Ossetia to help the regions balance their budgets and meet expenses, such as pensions and state salaries.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Sukhumi at lpronina@bloomberg.net; Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at hbedwell@bloomberg.net
US-Russia stand-off looms as Moscow announces expansion of military bases
Russian plans to construct a Black Sea naval base in Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia threaten heightened tension
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/12/us-russia-georgia-military-tension
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 August 2009
The prospect of a US-Russian naval stand-off in the Black Sea loomed today after Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would spend nearly half a billion dollars next year beefing up military bases in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia.
Much of the money is expected to fund construction of a new naval base in the Abkhaz town of Ochamchira, within striking distance of Georgia's Poti and Batumi ports, which have been regularly visited by US warships since the war in Georgia last summer. An existing Russian airbase further north in Gudauta is also likely to be enlarged.
"We will allot a very large amount of money — 15-16bn roubles (£300,000) — for the development of our military base and strengthening of Abkhazia's state border, next year," the Russian prime minister told reporters at his summer residence in Sochi, ahead of a surprise visit to the Moscow-backed republic today. "This is an additional and serious guarantee of the security of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," he added.
Nato is increasingly nervous at Russia expanding its military reach beyond its borders and expressed "concern" earlier this year over reports that Russia planned to increase its military footprint in Abkhazia. Only Russia and Nicaragua have recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent and under international law the construction of bases on what is officially Georgian territory will be illegal. Tbilisi has said it will protest against the plans "at every international level".
However, both breakaway republics have been de facto independent for more than 15 years and the Kremlin has made it clear it will sign bilateral agreements with them as "partner states", as it sees fit. A deal on military and economic co-operation was signed with both regions, in November last year.
In a recent analysis of the situation, Ariel Cohen, an analyst with the US Heritage Foundation, wrote: "With additional warships, fighter aircraft, and military personnel near the Black Sea coast of Georgia, Russia is challenging the position of the United States, which has recently signed a strategic partnership charter with Tbilisi."
He added: "In the summer of 2008, American warships were still able to enter Georgian waters to deliver humanitarian aid for the war victims. The question is: What will happen in the future? Could there be a US-Russian naval stand-off in the Black Sea some day?"
About 1,000 Russian troops are currently based in Abkhazia. It was unclear whether Putin's announcement envisaged a significant troop build-up. Last year, Moscow said it would increase the number to 3,700 but later scaled that down.
It is thought that Russia may envisage Ochamchira as a future home for its Black Sea fleet, which is currently based on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine says it will not renew the lease after it ends in 2017.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/12/us-russia-georgia-military-tension
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 August 2009
The prospect of a US-Russian naval stand-off in the Black Sea loomed today after Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would spend nearly half a billion dollars next year beefing up military bases in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia.
Much of the money is expected to fund construction of a new naval base in the Abkhaz town of Ochamchira, within striking distance of Georgia's Poti and Batumi ports, which have been regularly visited by US warships since the war in Georgia last summer. An existing Russian airbase further north in Gudauta is also likely to be enlarged.
"We will allot a very large amount of money — 15-16bn roubles (£300,000) — for the development of our military base and strengthening of Abkhazia's state border, next year," the Russian prime minister told reporters at his summer residence in Sochi, ahead of a surprise visit to the Moscow-backed republic today. "This is an additional and serious guarantee of the security of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," he added.
Nato is increasingly nervous at Russia expanding its military reach beyond its borders and expressed "concern" earlier this year over reports that Russia planned to increase its military footprint in Abkhazia. Only Russia and Nicaragua have recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent and under international law the construction of bases on what is officially Georgian territory will be illegal. Tbilisi has said it will protest against the plans "at every international level".
However, both breakaway republics have been de facto independent for more than 15 years and the Kremlin has made it clear it will sign bilateral agreements with them as "partner states", as it sees fit. A deal on military and economic co-operation was signed with both regions, in November last year.
In a recent analysis of the situation, Ariel Cohen, an analyst with the US Heritage Foundation, wrote: "With additional warships, fighter aircraft, and military personnel near the Black Sea coast of Georgia, Russia is challenging the position of the United States, which has recently signed a strategic partnership charter with Tbilisi."
He added: "In the summer of 2008, American warships were still able to enter Georgian waters to deliver humanitarian aid for the war victims. The question is: What will happen in the future? Could there be a US-Russian naval stand-off in the Black Sea some day?"
About 1,000 Russian troops are currently based in Abkhazia. It was unclear whether Putin's announcement envisaged a significant troop build-up. Last year, Moscow said it would increase the number to 3,700 but later scaled that down.
It is thought that Russia may envisage Ochamchira as a future home for its Black Sea fleet, which is currently based on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine says it will not renew the lease after it ends in 2017.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
How Russia Defines Genocide Down
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/weekinreview/09levy.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
New York Times
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Published: August 8, 2009
MOSCOW — After the conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out a year ago, each side accused the other of atrocities, but the Russians went farther. They spoke of marauding Georgian soldiers who systemically killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia. Georgia was guilty not just of war crimes, they said.
IN RUINS A South Ossetian militiaman returned to his bombed apartment last August.
Dmitry Kostyukov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
It was genocide.
“Eyewitnesses say Georgian army units ran over women and children with their tanks, drove people into houses and burned them alive,” Vladimir V. Putin, the prime minister and former president declared. “What was it if not genocide?”
That word became a Russian rallying cry. But it also served to underscore how the Kremlin seemed to mishandle the campaign to shape public opinion worldwide — a pivotal arena as Russia and Georgia sought to cast blame over who started the fighting.
It was as if senior Russian officials pulled out a dog-eared Soviet propaganda playbook that called for hurling the most outlandish charge, without recognizing that in the modern global media climate, their credibility would quickly suffer if the facts proved otherwise.
In the old days, credibility might not have mattered. Language could be marshaled by the Kremlin in discomfiting ways to advance the ideals of Communism and the West just expected it. But now, Mr. Putin has presented himself and his country as democratic and forward-looking, and that same language is held to a different standard.
And so it was that reporters entered South Ossetia after the five-day war, and Russian and local officials could not explain where all the bodies were, even at one point suggesting that they had been hastily buried by family members in backyards.
It later became clear that the death toll was far lower. The Kremlin now acknowledges that 162 South Ossetian civilians died in the war, out of a population of roughly 70,000. The figure was higher on the Georgian side, with 228 civilians killed, the Georgian government said.
Last week, as Russia used the anniversary of the war to undertake a public relations effort to press its case that Georgia caused it, the genocide charge was largely absent. The Georgian conduct was instead labeled criminal.
(As is customary these days, given that both countries have hired Western public relations agencies, the Georgians issued their own dossier, maintaining that Russia was responsible for the war.)
Asked on Thursday about genocide, a deputy Russian foreign minister, Grigory B. Karasin, seemed to concede that in the turbulent days of last August, the Russian side may have overstepped.
Still, Mr. Karasin emphasized that the allegation had to be understood in the context of regional history, saying that South Ossetians had long believed that the Georgians wanted to exterminate their culture.
“Those people, I think, on an emotional line, not on a legal line, but on an emotional line, have their own right to refer to the policy of Tbilisi toward the minorities, and toward South Ossetians, as a type of genocide,” Mr. Karasin said.
Mr. Karasin did not mention it, but there was another factor. Last August, the Kremlin appeared to jump at the opportunity to turn the tables on the West over the issue of ethnic clashes and breakaway regions.
Russia had long been indignant over Western support for Kosovo, the enclave in Serbia that won recognition as independent last year. The NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, which was intended to prevent the Serbs from suppressing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, had especially angered people here.
With the South Ossetian conflict, the Kremlin saw hypocrisy, asking why it was proper for the West to deploy force to support Kosovo in the face of supposed Serbian violence against civilians, but not for Russia to do the same thing for South Ossetia.
The Russians, in other words, ventured that if the West can call the Serbian actions genocide, then the term fit the Georgians as well.
Questioned about the genocide claim five weeks after the war, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, replied with scorn.
“It is laughable when people suggest that we should first count the dead, implying that if there was such and such a number, it would be genocide, but 100 people less and it is not genocide,” Mr. Medvedev said. “Of course, only people who used their aircraft to bomb Yugoslav territory for 90 days could think this way.”
While the Russians have avoided mentioning the word recently, their South Ossetian allies have not entirely done so. Last week, they unveiled a series of exhibits dedicated to the war. They are housed at the Museum of Genocide.
New York Times
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Published: August 8, 2009
MOSCOW — After the conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out a year ago, each side accused the other of atrocities, but the Russians went farther. They spoke of marauding Georgian soldiers who systemically killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia. Georgia was guilty not just of war crimes, they said.
IN RUINS A South Ossetian militiaman returned to his bombed apartment last August.
Dmitry Kostyukov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
It was genocide.
“Eyewitnesses say Georgian army units ran over women and children with their tanks, drove people into houses and burned them alive,” Vladimir V. Putin, the prime minister and former president declared. “What was it if not genocide?”
That word became a Russian rallying cry. But it also served to underscore how the Kremlin seemed to mishandle the campaign to shape public opinion worldwide — a pivotal arena as Russia and Georgia sought to cast blame over who started the fighting.
It was as if senior Russian officials pulled out a dog-eared Soviet propaganda playbook that called for hurling the most outlandish charge, without recognizing that in the modern global media climate, their credibility would quickly suffer if the facts proved otherwise.
In the old days, credibility might not have mattered. Language could be marshaled by the Kremlin in discomfiting ways to advance the ideals of Communism and the West just expected it. But now, Mr. Putin has presented himself and his country as democratic and forward-looking, and that same language is held to a different standard.
And so it was that reporters entered South Ossetia after the five-day war, and Russian and local officials could not explain where all the bodies were, even at one point suggesting that they had been hastily buried by family members in backyards.
It later became clear that the death toll was far lower. The Kremlin now acknowledges that 162 South Ossetian civilians died in the war, out of a population of roughly 70,000. The figure was higher on the Georgian side, with 228 civilians killed, the Georgian government said.
Last week, as Russia used the anniversary of the war to undertake a public relations effort to press its case that Georgia caused it, the genocide charge was largely absent. The Georgian conduct was instead labeled criminal.
(As is customary these days, given that both countries have hired Western public relations agencies, the Georgians issued their own dossier, maintaining that Russia was responsible for the war.)
Asked on Thursday about genocide, a deputy Russian foreign minister, Grigory B. Karasin, seemed to concede that in the turbulent days of last August, the Russian side may have overstepped.
Still, Mr. Karasin emphasized that the allegation had to be understood in the context of regional history, saying that South Ossetians had long believed that the Georgians wanted to exterminate their culture.
“Those people, I think, on an emotional line, not on a legal line, but on an emotional line, have their own right to refer to the policy of Tbilisi toward the minorities, and toward South Ossetians, as a type of genocide,” Mr. Karasin said.
Mr. Karasin did not mention it, but there was another factor. Last August, the Kremlin appeared to jump at the opportunity to turn the tables on the West over the issue of ethnic clashes and breakaway regions.
Russia had long been indignant over Western support for Kosovo, the enclave in Serbia that won recognition as independent last year. The NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, which was intended to prevent the Serbs from suppressing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, had especially angered people here.
With the South Ossetian conflict, the Kremlin saw hypocrisy, asking why it was proper for the West to deploy force to support Kosovo in the face of supposed Serbian violence against civilians, but not for Russia to do the same thing for South Ossetia.
The Russians, in other words, ventured that if the West can call the Serbian actions genocide, then the term fit the Georgians as well.
Questioned about the genocide claim five weeks after the war, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, replied with scorn.
“It is laughable when people suggest that we should first count the dead, implying that if there was such and such a number, it would be genocide, but 100 people less and it is not genocide,” Mr. Medvedev said. “Of course, only people who used their aircraft to bomb Yugoslav territory for 90 days could think this way.”
While the Russians have avoided mentioning the word recently, their South Ossetian allies have not entirely done so. Last week, they unveiled a series of exhibits dedicated to the war. They are housed at the Museum of Genocide.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Year After Georgian War, Rage Has Only Hardened
Sergey Ponomarev/Associated Press
Russian soldiers cleaned their rifles on Friday in Tskhinvali, a city in the breakaway region of South Ossetia where Georgian shelling last Aug. 7 began the fighting.
TSKHINVALI, Georgia — A year after war broke out in this tiny provincial city in the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the roads are still rutted with jaw-rattling potholes and downtown buildings are shells open to the sky.
But great effort has gone into commemorating last year’s war. Near midnight on Friday, precisely a year after Georgia began shelling Tskhinvali, thousands of people gathered in the city’s main square, where a Russian-made documentary was projected on a huge screen overhead. Images of Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and President George W. Bush were juxtaposed with footage of dead Ossetians, as a floodlit violinist played melancholy music.
Georgia, too, offered heavy symbolism. In Gori, which came under Russian bombing in the war, authorities erected a replica of the Berlin Wall, a pointed commentary on Russia’s foothold on Georgian land. Georgians observed a nationwide moment of silence in the afternoon, and 500 schoolchildren dressed in red and white formed a living replica of Georgia’s flag. A year after the war, the question of who is to blame is still being fought out in public life. On Friday, the presidents of both Russia and Georgia took pains to justify their decisions to send their armies into South Ossetia.
Both have faced pressure over the war; Russia set itself at odds with the West by sending its troops into Georgia and again, more permanently, when it recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Georgia’s other separatist enclave, Abkhazia. Mr. Saakashvili, meanwhile, is blamed by domestic critics for losing control over the territories.
Meanwhile, in this valley, the rage has not abated, not at all. As they prepared to mark the war’s anniversary, Ossetians here referred to Georgians as “swine” and “livestock,” and said they would never live in peace with them again. The commemorations seemed only to stoke those feelings.
“If at some point I see a young Georgian man, and I know that he served in the army, I will kill him,” said Seldik Tedeyev, a bus driver whose son and mother died trying to leave Tskhinvali last Aug. 8. “Years will pass, time will pass, but I will kill him anyway.”
An escalating conflict here erupted into full-fledged war when Georgian forces began shelling Tskhinvali on the night of Aug. 7. Russia responded by sending columns of armor into South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia routed the Georgian Army, and then recognized the regions as sovereign nations, pledging to protect their independence with its military.
Georgia has reported more than 400 deaths in the war; Russia’s prosecutor’s office has so far reported 162. Some 30,000 ethnic Georgians who were driven from their homes remain refugees, according to Amnesty International, and Ossetian militias razed their villages to the ground.
In a speech on Friday, Mr. Saakashvili made the case he has made since the beginning: that a Russian invasion was already under way on the night of Aug. 7, and that the attack on Tskhinvali was defensive.
“Our beloved nation was fighting for its very existence,” he said. “The heirs of the old K.G.B. decided to put an end to what they call the ‘Georgian project,’ our collective attempt to build a European state in a corner of Europe that had never before had one.”
President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, in remarks to filmmakers in Moscow, described the decision to send in troops as the most difficult of his life.
“Each time I remember these events, I rewind the tape, as they say, and realize that on one hand, we had no other choice in that situation,” he said. “On the other hand, the events were unfolding under the worst-case scenario, probably, the most sorrowful scenario.”
Russia responded “harshly” to Georgia, he said, “saving hundreds and thousands of lives and restoring peace in the Caucasus that was at serious risk.”
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia has been cut off from Georgia politically and economically, and Tskhinvali came to feel less like a city than a village, with passing cars kicking up clouds of dust. Its prewar population was estimated at 70,000 — including Ossetians and many ethnic Georgians, who farmed on the lush strip of land north of the capital. Both groups, on Friday, were thinking about what they had lost.
Mr. Tedeyev, 47, sat in the shade of a tree in his courtyard, stone-faced. He has four memorial services to go to next week — among others, for his 22-year-old son, who was shot by advancing Georgian infantry when he tried to drive north to Russia. Mr. Tedeyev’s mother was killed moments before, when a shell hit the car.
Mr. Tedeyev grew up in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, and has many relatives in Georgia, but since his son’s death he has severed all contact with them. He has heard from only one of them — a favorite aunt — and when he heard her voice on the phone he hung up. He smokes two packs of cigarettes every night, he said, thinking obsessively about that drive out of the city.
“I don’t like to see people,” he said. “I sit quietly alone in a room.”
On the other side of the border, Nana Tsitsuashvili, 50, dissolved into tears as she stood in Gori’s central square before the Berlin Wall exhibit. A year ago, she fled Gori when it was under bombardment; nine of her neighbors were killed, she said, and she still has trouble conceiving that Russia would use bombs on civilians. But Nino Gabinashvili, 16, one of the students who gathered to form a Georgian flag, had no such difficulty.
“August showed us that Russia is our enemy,” said Ms. Gabinashvili, whose family fled Gori as Russian soldiers entered. “Ossetians are not enemies, they are just toys in the Russians’ hands, but eventually they will realize this.”
Olesya Vartanyan contributed reporting from Tbilisi, Georgia.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Georgia peace fragile one year after war
Tue Aug 4, 2009 9:23am EDT
By Matt Robinson and Amie Ferris-Rotman -Analysis
FULL STORY:
http://www.reuters.com/article/joeBiden/idUSTRE5733LN20090804
TBILISI/TSKHINVALI, Georgia (Reuters) - A dangerous security vacuum in Georgia's rebel regions and an unfulfilled ceasefire pact threaten renewed hostilities a year after the Caucasus country's five-day war with Russia.
With the withdrawal of military observers from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, little has been done to confront the danger of skirmishes boiling over into full-blown hostilities, analysts warn. Unarmed European Union monitors are denied access.
Friday marks the anniversary of Georgia's assault on pro-Moscow South Ossetia, and Russia's crushing counter-strike.
A year on, Georgian police hold positions behind sandbags a few hundred meters from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, while Russian FSB security service officers in camouflage uniform control the borders of the rebel territory 50 km (30 miles) from Tbilisi at their nearest point.
"We came for a long time and we're ready to defend this republic," said Pavel Bozhov, a border patrol officer of the FSB, which is successor to the KGB.
Hansjoerg Haber, heading 240 EU monitors deployed after the war but patrolling only as far as the boundary, said they were succeeding in "refreezing the conflict."
"But if we don't introduce a dynamic element, like confidence building, it could at some stage re-erupt."
The lead-up to the anniversary has seen a spike in tensions.
South Ossetia and Georgia have traded accusations of mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades fired over the boundary.
Russia warned Saturday it would use "all available force" to defend South Ossetia, a statement Georgia said demonstrated Moscow's "dangerous designs."
"The biggest danger is probably less some pre-planned military campaign or intervention, but a situation which starts as a local conflagration and goes out of control," said Lawrence Sheets of the International Crisis Group thinktank.
Georgia launched an assault on South Ossetia on August 7 after days of skirmishes and months of tension between Moscow and Tbilisi over South Ossetia and the rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia, which both broke away in wars in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia responded with a devastating counter-strike that routed the Georgian military. Russian forces pushed into Georgia proper, shaking confidence in oil and gas routes running West through the former Soviet republic. An EU-brokered ceasefire called for forces to withdraw to pre-war positions.
By Matt Robinson and Amie Ferris-Rotman -Analysis
FULL STORY:
http://www.reuters.com/article/joeBiden/idUSTRE5733LN20090804
TBILISI/TSKHINVALI, Georgia (Reuters) - A dangerous security vacuum in Georgia's rebel regions and an unfulfilled ceasefire pact threaten renewed hostilities a year after the Caucasus country's five-day war with Russia.
With the withdrawal of military observers from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, little has been done to confront the danger of skirmishes boiling over into full-blown hostilities, analysts warn. Unarmed European Union monitors are denied access.
Friday marks the anniversary of Georgia's assault on pro-Moscow South Ossetia, and Russia's crushing counter-strike.
A year on, Georgian police hold positions behind sandbags a few hundred meters from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, while Russian FSB security service officers in camouflage uniform control the borders of the rebel territory 50 km (30 miles) from Tbilisi at their nearest point.
"We came for a long time and we're ready to defend this republic," said Pavel Bozhov, a border patrol officer of the FSB, which is successor to the KGB.
Hansjoerg Haber, heading 240 EU monitors deployed after the war but patrolling only as far as the boundary, said they were succeeding in "refreezing the conflict."
"But if we don't introduce a dynamic element, like confidence building, it could at some stage re-erupt."
The lead-up to the anniversary has seen a spike in tensions.
South Ossetia and Georgia have traded accusations of mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades fired over the boundary.
Russia warned Saturday it would use "all available force" to defend South Ossetia, a statement Georgia said demonstrated Moscow's "dangerous designs."
"The biggest danger is probably less some pre-planned military campaign or intervention, but a situation which starts as a local conflagration and goes out of control," said Lawrence Sheets of the International Crisis Group thinktank.
Georgia launched an assault on South Ossetia on August 7 after days of skirmishes and months of tension between Moscow and Tbilisi over South Ossetia and the rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia, which both broke away in wars in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia responded with a devastating counter-strike that routed the Georgian military. Russian forces pushed into Georgia proper, shaking confidence in oil and gas routes running West through the former Soviet republic. An EU-brokered ceasefire called for forces to withdraw to pre-war positions.
Russia Accused of Altering Border
New York Times
By ELLEN BARRY
Published: August 2, 2009
FULL STORY:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/europe/03georgia.html?emc=tnt&tntema
MOSCOW — Georgia accused Russia of attempting to take a small wedge of additional territory on Sunday on the boundary of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, amid mounting tension days before the anniversary of last year’s five-day war.
Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for Georgia’s Interior Ministry, said Russian reconnaissance teams entered the village of Kveshi in the disputed region in an attempt to move the boundary several hundred yards to a strategically better position. Though Russian border guards have been deployed on South Ossetia’s boundary with Georgia since April 30, he said, they have been reinforcing it gradually. Press officers for the separatist government of South Ossetia could not be reached for comment.
Steve Bird, a spokesman for the European Union Monitoring Mission, said patrols in Kveshi found no evidence of any action there. He said there were perennial arguments about the exact location of the boundary of South Ossetia, and that “the overall picture is more tense as the anniversary approaches.”
By ELLEN BARRY
Published: August 2, 2009
FULL STORY:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/europe/03georgia.html?emc=tnt&tntema
MOSCOW — Georgia accused Russia of attempting to take a small wedge of additional territory on Sunday on the boundary of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, amid mounting tension days before the anniversary of last year’s five-day war.
Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for Georgia’s Interior Ministry, said Russian reconnaissance teams entered the village of Kveshi in the disputed region in an attempt to move the boundary several hundred yards to a strategically better position. Though Russian border guards have been deployed on South Ossetia’s boundary with Georgia since April 30, he said, they have been reinforcing it gradually. Press officers for the separatist government of South Ossetia could not be reached for comment.
Steve Bird, a spokesman for the European Union Monitoring Mission, said patrols in Kveshi found no evidence of any action there. He said there were perennial arguments about the exact location of the boundary of South Ossetia, and that “the overall picture is more tense as the anniversary approaches.”
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