| Russian sanctions against Georgia are starting to work for Saakashvili Russian authorities said yesterday that the sanctions imposed against Georgia will not only not be lifted, despite the extradition of the arrested military personnel to Moscow, but may also be strengthened. “Not all sanctions have been introduced yet,” said State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov. These promises immediately caused alarm in the United States. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: “We would like our Russian and Georgian friends to overcome their differences in an amicable and peaceful manner. In this regard, we were disappointed by Russia's introduction of some additional sanctions against Georgia. We would like to see these measures reviewed."
Mr. Casey rejected suggestions in Moscow that Washington was encouraging Tbilisi's anti-Russian policies. But, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe yesterday in Strasbourg, Russia has no doubt that the ruling Georgian regime enjoys outside patronage: “This regime enjoys obvious patronage, and I am convinced that in many ways it is indulged His anti-Russian line is the reason that this regime goes so far as to go beyond all boundaries of decency, reaching the point of personal insults in its public speeches and gross provocations.”
The United States and European countries do not want to allow the UN statement on Georgia, which will be discussed in New York later this week, to be as tough as Russia hoped. Yesterday, a softer draft resolution prepared by Western countries was submitted to the UN Security Council. “Some members of the UN Security Council believe that it is possible to approach this issue with kid gloves,” said Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, on this occasion. But he promised that Russia would work with this new project.
To reassure the West at least a little, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov promised that the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia would continue, even in an “accelerated manner.” According to the 2005 agreements, the Russian military presence in Georgia remains until the end of 2008. True, Vremya Novostey’s source at the headquarters of the Group of Russian Forces in Transcaucasia (GRVZ) stated that “there have not yet been any instructions or instructions to prepare for an accelerated withdrawal.” A representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, in a conversation with Vremya Novostei, noted that Russia does not have any joint projects with the Georgian military department, except for the implementation of the agreement on the withdrawal of Russian military bases. “It was no coincidence that Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Serey Ivanov said yesterday in Bishkek about the possibility of carrying out the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgian territory at an accelerated pace - all his statements were agreed upon at the highest level.”
Vice-President of the College of Military Experts, Major General Alexander Vladimirov, told Vremya Novostey that Defense Minister Ivanov’s statement about the possibility of an accelerated withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia reflects the real state of affairs: “Russia needs to quickly withdraw troops from Georgia. We have nothing to do there. Russia does not need Georgia as a base for its mythical push to the Bosporus. Some believe that Russian military bases in the event of a military conflict with Georgia can play the role of a springboard. This is wrong. There are no more of our combat units left in Georgia. The military personnel are engaged in the withdrawal of bases from Georgian territory, and the units located there will not be able to provide serious resistance in the event of a large-scale armed provocation on the part of Tbilisi. Keeping them there as hostages of the Saakashvili regime is simply unacceptable. If the situation reaches a military conflict, then even without bases Georgia can be reached from the territory of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and from the sea.”
According to the newspaper’s interlocutor, “Russia needs normal good neighborly relations with this Transcaucasian republic so that it does not create NATO bases on its territory and does not organize provocations against our military.” “The Georgian people are now silent, intimidated by the repressions of the Saakashvili regime, and I am not sure that they will quickly deal with their rulers. They may remain in power for a long time. Putting the lives and health of our military at risk under these conditions is simply stupid,” the general said.
On the other hand, Russia does not intend to cancel naval exercises with Turkey in the Black Sea, although Georgia has demanded this. “If we react to every sneeze of the Saakashvili regime and change our plans... No one will wait for this,” Sergei Ivanov said belligerently. According to Georgia’s representative to the UN, Irakli Alasania, these exercises “pose a threat to peace in the region” and infringe on Georgia’s rights, since they also affect Georgian territorial waters.
On September 29, a detachment of warships of the Russian Navy entered the Black Sea to solve problems within the framework of the international operation “Black Sea Harmony”. Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili yesterday responded to this and the ongoing sanctions as follows. In the presence of television journalists, he allegedly sent two bunches of black grapes via international mail to the Kremlin: “So that they don’t forget the taste of Georgian grapes. This makes them feel bad, which in turn causes sanctions.”
An unclear situation has developed around the Tbilisi special school of the Group of Russian Forces in Transcaucasia, located on the territory of the former district military hospital. Yesterday there were reports that the school received an order to expel students and teachers who are citizens of Georgia. This caused a flurry of emotions not only in Georgia, but also in Russia, because a fair question arose: what do children have to do with it? The chairman of the parliamentary committee on external relations, Konstantin Gabashvili, made a special statement that “it is no longer possible to imagine greater anti-Georgian hysteria and hatred.”
But late in the evening, the Russian embassy in Tbilisi announced to journalists that there was no such order, and the school was supposedly temporarily closed due to municipal elections in Georgia, scheduled for October 5. The school director, Orest Peschanenko, told Vremya Novostey that there are 360 children studying there. 75 of them are Georgian citizens. The Georgian Ministry of Education explained that GRVZ schools are outside the jurisdiction of Georgia, so they cannot influence the processes there. But if students do drop out, they will be helped to transfer to regular high schools.
Today municipal elections will be held in Georgia, but the entire Georgian opposition has announced that in relations with Moscow it will support the course of the current authorities. Russia's decisions to impose sanctions against Georgia contributed to an increase in the ratings of the ruling United National Movement just before the vote.
Yesterday, Georgian parties organized a rally near the Russian Embassy in Georgia, holding posters “The Empire cannot be revived!” Currently there are only four employees in the diplomatic mission. They are compiling a list of Russians who want to leave Georgia for their homeland. “There are only a few of them so far,” the embassy told Vremya Novostei. “They will send a plane from the Ministry of Emergency Situations for them, but it is not yet clear when.”
Russians wishing to travel to Moscow left their mobile phone numbers so that they could be informed about the departure time. It is much more difficult for Georgian citizens to get to Russia under the transport blockade. Aeroflot flight Tbilisi-Sheremetyevo-2 operated before the introduction of sanctions six times a week at 7.25. On Wednesday, only three “optimists” showed up for boarding, hoping that Moscow would allow the flight. A Vremya Novostei source at the Aeroflot representative office said that passengers are sent via Baku and Yerevan, but they must travel to the capitals of neighboring republics at their own expense. Despite the additional costs, almost 100 passengers used this route in two days. In the afternoon, there were more people at the Tbilisi airport: Georgian air carriers promised to organize flights to Moscow via Kyiv. Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi, Victor VOLODIN, Stanislav LYUBIMOV |
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