Translated material
Caucasus without politics
The Russians sent Europeans in a humanitarian direction
Russia has failed to convince European public opinion that South Ossetia and Abkhazia have the right to independence. An indicator of this is the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe currently taking place in the French city of Strasbourg. This organization, which is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its creation these days, unites 47 countries of the European continent (including Russia) with a total population of more than 800 million people.People's representatives from member countries, discussing the humanitarian situation in the Caucasus yesterday, mostly criticized Moscow for recognizing the independence of these two republics in 2008 . Only one delegation spoke in defense of the Russian position - the Russian one. But her political arguments proved unconvincing to MPs from other countries.
Thus, communist leader Gennady Zyuganov recalled that discussions are taking place against the backdrop of other important problems - such as the financial crisis. Anatoly Korobeinikov from A Just Russia declared political debates a “useless waste of time,” calling for only humanitarian aspects to be discussed.
The head of the Russian delegation, Konstantin Kosachev, again suggested remembering that Georgia started the war on the night of August 8, 2008 . The historical excursion was emotional, but left his colleagues, interested in the current state of affairs in the region and forecasts for the future, indifferent. This sentiment was captured by another Russian parliamentarian, Leonid Slutsky. “Now there is no need to figure out who is to blame. We need to work on improving the humanitarian situation,” he said in the debate.
Swedish MP Marietta de Purbay-Lunden, in her brief speech, called the arguments of Russian representatives a “game of cat and mouse” based on the song “Back in the USSR” from the Beatles’ repertoire. She and other parliamentarians recalled that two previous resolutions of their organization, adopted hot on the heels of the war in the Caucasus, demanded that Russia refuse to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Moscow ignored this - and, by the way, no sanctions followed.
Yesterday's regulations did not provide for lengthy and heated debates. The protocol limited speeches in the debate to three minutes. This requirement was strictly observed, despite the requests of some deputies to at least allow the sentence to be completed when it was interrupted by a bell signaling the expiration of time. The main condition was to discuss not politics, but the problems of people living in the conflict zone.
The report “On the humanitarian consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia” was made by a deputy from the Netherlands, Corien Jonker, who visited the region in March. The very title of her speech suggests that in Europe the conflict of August 2008 is still perceived not as a war between Georgia and South Ossetia, but as a “war between Russians and Georgians.”
According to Konstantin Kosachev, the presented report was “correct and strong,” although “there were many flaws when the author discussed political topics.” He also had in mind the fact that his colleague used in her research the expression “occupied territories” as applied to certain regions of South Ossetia, in particular Akhalgori.
“We were satisfied that the word “occupation” was used. After all, it’s clear who the occupier is,” deputy head of the Georgian delegation Georgiy Gabashvili, who also liked the report, told Vremya Novostei. “But still, the main thing is that the tone of the discussion is becoming more favorable towards Russia. There is a big difference compared to what it was at the beginning of the year and last fall,” Leonid Slutsky told VN, referring to the strong criticism of Moscow at previous sessions.
Corien Jonker said that people living in the conflict zone need financial, medical and other assistance. She called on humanitarian organizations to intensify their efforts, and the parties to the conflict to freely allow aid to reach the affected cities and villages. This was reflected in the resolution that deputies voted for yesterday following a discussion. The document contains an important point that the parties to the conflict should no longer use force to resolve their disputes.
In South Ossetia, the speaker emphasized, more than 3 thousand refugees have not yet been resettled in separate housing. Another 1.5 thousand remain in neighboring North Ossetia, where they fled during the war. The Ossetians have not yet received the 10 billion rubles in aid promised by Moscow. (one of the Russian deputies later explained that the first tranche of 1.5 billion rubles had already been allocated). About 130 thousand Georgians fled from the conflict zone, of which 26 thousand remain in “collective living centers” in Tbilisi and other cities.
The reports on the general situation in the region made by visiting Belgian Luc van den Brande and Hungarian Matthias Jorschi were unflattering for Russia, but balanced due to criticism of Georgia also voiced there. For example, for the “law on occupied territories”, adopted by the Georgian parliament on October 28, 2008, which violates international norms. Because of this law, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are deprived of full communication with the outside world: the Georgians, for their part, organized a transport blockade of these regions.
Russia got it for “maintaining a military presence” in the conflict zone and for “restrictions on the access of international observers.” But this time no political resolution was adopted. Discussions will continue at a session in June and in more detail in October. As the Russians wanted, this time there was almost no politics, no threats of sanctions and no scandals.