Russians plunder, but everything is the West’s fault, it says
By David Matsaberidze
Monday, September 15
The West is still considering the possibility of imposing sanctions on Russia, but Russia claims it is fulfilling the six point agreement and warns Europe to be cautious. Western diplomats term the gradual withdrawal of the Russian forces a positive development and prepare to send an observer mission to Georgia, while Russia argues that “it would still have attacked Georgia, even if Georgia had been granted the NATO MAP.”
Russian troops vacated two outposts on the fringes of Poti port on Saturday morning. Russia undertook a commitment under the agreement signed on September 8 to withdraw from all five checkpoints “on a line from Poti to Senaki” within a maximum of one week. Russian forces vacated two checkpoints in the town of Senaki and that in the village of Pirveli Maisi on September 13, officials said. Russia has to remove its checkpoints and withdraw troops from other parts of Georgia outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia within ten days after EU observers are deployed in those areas. At least 200 EU observers should be deployed in the areas adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia no later than October 1, according to the September 8 agreement.
The removal of the Russian troops was not painless, as it was accompanied by brutal acts of willful murder and damage to property. Georgian policeman Besik Khulordava, 27, was wounded while he was on duty in the village of Ganmukhuri. He was reportedly shot by a sniper from the Russian occupation forces, received two bullet wounds in his chest and was taken to the Zugdidi Republican Hospital. There he was subsequently pronounced dead.
The Russians have plundered almost all of the Tsalendzikha Region, taking away the property and cattle of local inhabitants. The four villages of Chale, Pakhulani, Photkho and Muchava are still occupied by the Russian forces. Heavy armored vehicles and around 20 military personnel remain in the region. As the local Governor stated, “there are no signs that the Russians are preparing for removal”. The Governor hopes that the Russian troops will leave by the end of September, in accordance with the statement of President Medvedev.
Radical and alarming condemnations of America have recently been issued by the Russian Federation, which blames George W. Bush for the Georgian crisis. An article published by British publication First Post (www.thefirstpost.co.uk) accuses Bush of “not exercising enough pressure on Saakashvili to stop his aggression in South Ossetia,” claiming that the US did nothing against the Georgian aggression. President Medvedev warned that “Georgia’s integration into NATO will not help to reduce global tensions” at a meeting with a group of foreign journalists and foreign policy experts in Moscow on September 12. “NATO will not become stronger by accepting Georgia and global tensions won’t be reduced, as had a NATO Membership Action Plan [MAP] been granted to Georgia, I would still have sent troops there,” Medvedev stressed.
Medvedev also pronounced that denying post-Soviet Russia NATO membership was a major mistake. He declared that “the current developments are the result of the abovementioned move. If Russia had been accepted, nowadays there would be fewer problems.” According to Medvedev NATO is a threat to Russia and Russia aims to counter its intentions. Medvedev had also scornfully assaulted President Saakashvili, saying “He is totally unpredictable, a person burdened with a mass of pathologies, with an unbalanced psychological condition, who takes narcotic drugs, a fact well known to those Western journalists, who have interviewed him recently,” Medvedev stated. A transcript of these remarks has been posted on the Kremlin website.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation announced that a special telephone conversation was conducted between US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov regarding various issues arising from the recent developments and strategic stability, in which the Caucasus is always the focus of considerable attention. Lavrov stressed that, “the EU observation mission will be deployed on territories adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whereas stability within these territories will be maintained by Russian military formations.”
A recent statement by Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Head of the General Office of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, said that “three of the crew of an aircraft tracked down by Georgian forces have not yet been handed over to the Russian side and are still considered missing in action, although the captain of the plane was handed over almost immediately.” The UN is discussing the possibility of sending a special investigation group to Georgia. “Having monitored developments from the very beginning, the UN is eager to help Georgia either directly, or through facilitating international discussion over peacekeeping or other missions for the peaceful resolution of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian problems,” Ban Ki-moon stressed.
Sarah Palin, US Vice-Presidential candidate, expressed her concern over the Russian aggression against Georgia and openly supported Georgia. According to Palin, “the US should demonstrate its support for Georgia through imposing sanctions on the Russian Federation.” Palin stressed the importance of accepting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. The Deputy State Secretary of the US in European and Eurasian Affairs, Daniel Fried, termed the Russian aggression against Georgia a very provocative and dangerous action. “The US will never support or acknowledge the imposition of Russian influence in Georgia”, he declared. Fried confirmed that the US does not recognize the so-called “zones of influence” and supports those countries adhering to the principle of democracy, choosing the way of NATO and the EU and independently determining their fate and future place in the wider world.
The EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana said on September 13 that “The EU has enough pledges from its member states to form a 200-strong team of monitors and deploy it in Georgia before the beginning of October. We will do it in time and we will do it properly. By the 10th of October that part [of Georgia] will be devoid of Russian troops. That is the most important thing. That is what Georgian President Saakashvili wanted and that is we have been trying to broker with the Russians,” Solana concluded. According to him, “it is crucial that the Russian units are leaving Georgian territory and by October 10 will have vacated all territories as agreed in the signed document.”
The OSCE decided last month to send 100 additional observers to Georgia. 20 have already arrived, but are not able to monitor the situation inside breakaway South Ossetia. Talks on the modalities of the deployment of the remaining 80 observers are underway. Meanwhile UN observers, according to the September 8 agreement, will be able to continue monitoring inside Abkhazia in accordance with the mandate they had before the hostilities.
Georgian Ministers are still attempting to gain international support for Georgia. The Minister of Justice has just returned from the Hague, where he attended the hearing of the Georgian-Russian case at the International Court of Justice. The court will announce its decision within 2-3 days. The Georgian side hopes the court will acknowledge the ethnic cleansing of Georgians undertaken by the aggressors, as this claim is supported by a great deal of evidence. Lawyers from the Georgian side claim that “the Russian arguments were unfounded and poorly supported.” Parliamentary Chairperson David Bakradze is still in the US, where he attended a special meeting dedicated to the Georgian-Russian relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The problems of the recent Georgian-Russian developments pose for international security were discussed in detail. Bakradze explained the essence of the Russian-Georgian conflict and the peculiarities of the existing situation.
President Saakashvili urged NATO not to leave Georgia to stand alone against Russia and to support the country as much as possible. In his interview with Associated Press Saakashvili stressed that “If NATO is not firm over the latest developments, as obviously the Russian aggression was targeted at NATO as well, Russia will continue in the same way.” Saakashvili stated that his Government would do everything to avoid a repetition of the aggression from the Russian Federation. “The threat is still real, as a tone of warning and menace is still taken by the Russian side. This should be seriously taken into consideration by Georgia and the whole international community,” Saakashvili concluded.
Georgia is trying to build a defensive cordon around the conflict zones. “A Special Purpose Unit from the Georgia Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) will be deployed in the village of Ganmukhuri at the administrative border of Abkhazia,” Vano Merabishvili, the Interior Minister, said on September 13. The move comes after a Georgian policeman was killed in the village earlier that day. “We have decided that our units will return to their previous positions [at the Abkhaz administrative border before the launch of hostilities in August] to protect this zone,” Merabishvili stated. “So far only policemen were controlling movements there. We will do our best to prevent further casualties and protect the safety of those people who returned to their homes in Ganmukhuri and other adjacent villages,” the Minister concluded. Meanwhile, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a body attached to CIS denied Abkhazia membership. As its leader explained, “Abkhazia and South Ossetia do not have the right of CSTO membership, as long as they are not recognized by member states of the organization.”