Translated material
Donors and observers
Georgian politicians are split in their assessments of the situation in the Caucasus
In October, an international donor conference will be held in Georgia under the auspices of the European Union, initiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It is possible that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and even US President George W. Bush will attend this forum. This became known after the completion of the visit to Tbilisi of a delegation of high-ranking European mediators, where they arrived from Moscow after negotiations with Dmitry Medvedev . Nicolas Sarkozy, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, as well as EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Javier Solana and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso left the Georgian capital late at night yesterday after holding two-hour talks with Mikheil Saakashvili. Europeans hurried to Paris, where, due to time pressure, the pre-planned EU-Ukraine summit was urgently moved from Evian.The Georgian president spoke about the results of the negotiations at a press conference, which he began in French and continued in English. He seemed satisfied with the Western community's attention to the country's problems and called the agreements reached in Moscow "a step forward." However, politicians in Georgia itself have different interpretations of the results of negotiations with Europeans and the situation in the Caucasus in general.
Saakashvili's supporters say that the aggravation of the crisis plays into Tbilisi's hands: if the conflicts had not been “unfrozen,” Georgia would have had to ask for a settlement for a long time. Now the whole world is captivated by Georgian affairs. Opponents insist that, having become involved in an armed confrontation, the Georgian authorities lost Abkhazia and South Ossetia, postponing the process of reconciliation with the Abkhazians and Ossetians for many years. Not to mention the hundreds of military and civilian deaths, tens of thousands of refugees, and nearly a billion dollars in economic damage.
“We need patience, we need serious diplomatic efforts, today a settlement is more realistic than ever,” President Saakashvili explained after negotiations with Sarkozy. - The USA and Europe have many mechanisms. Europe recognized for the first time, and Sarkozy confirmed this in writing, that not only current refugees should return home, but also those who appeared after 1992 (this is the year the first Georgian-Ossetian war ended and the beginning of the 13-month conflict in Abkhazia. - Ed. ). There are half a million such refugees. The mandate of European observers will be extended to the entire territory of conflict zones, refugees will return everywhere.”
However, the new agreements between Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy provide for the appearance of European observers in the zones adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and Moscow notes that this does not concern Abkhazia and South Ossetia itself. Georgians interpret this passage in their own way, and this will certainly lead to new difficulties in the negotiations.
“When our authorities talk about paying attention to Georgia, this is an attempt to justify themselves,” Paata Zakareishvili, a well-known Georgian expert on conflict resolution, told Vremya Novostei. - In fact, the whole world is excited not by what is happening in Georgia, but by the behavior of Russia. Russia cynically and effectively took advantage of Georgia's mistakes, taking revenge for the expansion of NATO, for the bombing of Belgrade, for Kosovo. Sarkozy's visits only document what happened after August 8th. These are new realities. Like after an earthquake or volcanic eruption, Georgia will receive a new catastrophic situation. The new agreements for Georgia will be worse than those that regulated the processes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia - the Dagomys Agreement of 1992 and the Moscow Agreement of 1994. Saakashvili destroyed the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian settlement. They will not ask us anything else, they will only inform us. In reality, the United States and Europe will have to negotiate with Russia.”
On Tuesday, the authoritative Georgian opposition party New Right said it was ending a moratorium on criticism of the authorities, declared during the military confrontation with Russia. Right-wing leader David Gamkrelidze demanded early presidential elections in Georgia.
At a briefing in Tbilisi, Nicolas Sarkozy spoke about the importance of the agreements reached in Moscow: “We are on the right path. At the first stage, we achieved a ceasefire, but now we have reached the point that Russian troops must return to their places of deployment at the beginning of the conflict.”
On Tuesday afternoon, a message was received from the Chkhorotsk region of Western Georgia that Russia was closing the checkpoint here. This was the first signal of the fulfillment of Dmitry Medvedev's promise to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from the Poti-Senaki line within seven days, the countdown of which began on September 8, after the Russian president received EU-certified guarantees from the Georgian president that force would not be used against Abkhazia and South Ossetia .