Translated material
Not "business as usual"
Moscow entered into a diplomatic battle with Washington over the Caucasus
The Russian leadership took very seriously the plan proposed by Washington to introduce international police forces into the area of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict , designed to replace the Russian peacekeepers operating there. In order to prevent such a development of events, Moscow demanded an urgent convening of a meeting of the UN Security Council. A few hours before the meeting scheduled for yesterday evening, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement in which it accused Tbilisi of committing an “open, pre-planned act of aggression” against South Ossetia, “which is an internationally recognized party to the conflict resolution.”But the Russian Foreign Ministry associates the most serious accusations against the Georgian leadership with “information confirmed by specific facts that in the spring of 2008” Tbilisi “planned to carry out a military operation to seize Abkhazia.”
Moscow comes to the conclusion that “the Georgian leadership has taken the path of deliberately escalating tensions in relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” which “represents a real threat to peace and security in the South Caucasus” and puts the region “on the brink of a new armed conflict with unpredictable consequences " Following these, a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry formulated the main thing that worries Moscow: “The goal of this is to destroy the peacekeeping architecture that has been in place for a decade and a half in the region in the hope of replacing it with new settlement mechanisms that suit the Georgian side.” From these words we can conclude that the old “settlement mechanisms” apparently suited the other side of the conflict, the Abkhazian one...
Further, in the statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry points to those who “shield out the provocateurs and blame Moscow for everything”—“representatives of the US State Department.” It is reported that the draft resolution of the UN Security Council introduced by Russia proposes to “immediately sign documents on the non-use of force in the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts,” as well as to carry out a complete withdrawal of Georgian troops from the upper part of the Kodori Gorge (this is the only region of Abkhazia under the control of Tbilisi). The department on Smolenskaya Square promises “conscientious and impartial” continuation of efforts for the political resolution of conflicts. But he immediately warns that “in light of the new surge of provocations in conflict zones, it is hardly possible to continue “business as usual”...
Such unusual turns of phrase for official diplomatic vocabulary indicate a demarche that is not at all routine for the Russian Foreign Ministry. There they not only make it clear, but clearly warn that “to talk about building confidence”, “about other aspects of the settlement” Moscow is ready to return no earlier than its conditions are met.
It is possible that the extremely harsh tone of the Foreign Ministry could be caused by the irritation experienced in Moscow after learning about the categorical statements made to journalists by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on board the plane on the way from Washington to Prague two days earlier. Georgia's accession to NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP) "will give it a very good standing for resolving frozen conflicts," the head of US diplomacy said. And Ms. Rice’s assurances that she “does not consider the aggravation of the situation around Abkhazia and South Ossetia to be a consequence of Russia’s dissatisfaction with Georgia’s intention to join NATO” could hardly be a consolation to Moscow.
Moreover, one can be sure that the determination with which Moscow is demonstrating its readiness to oppose Washington’s plans to oust the Russian presence in the conflict zone in the South Caucasus is directly related to the results of Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic activities during her current trip to Europe. First of all, with the signing of an agreement between the United States and the Czech Republic on the deployment of elements of the American missile defense system.
Against the background of these events, which threaten serious changes in the geopolitical configuration in Europe, even the numerous reproaches against each other that were constantly heard yesterday from various Georgian, Russian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian sources for airspace violations by combat aircraft, attacks on police and military personnel, among whom are victims. Meanwhile, this is how the gradually increasing bloodshed imperceptibly but surely turns into the beginning of a full-scale war.