.jpg "South Ossetia: landscape after the battle")
By Alexei Vlasov, exclusively to VK
The formation of the new team of new Ossetian President, Leonid Tibilov, now, after the campaigning is over is accepted in a much calmer manner by the press that it used to be in early spring, when every piece of news coming from South Ossetia was turned into a sensation.
However, recently quite a surprising piece of news came from Tskhinvali - the government of the South Ossetian Republic plans to reopen the Ergentski market that was closed down in 2004. This reopening would allow the inhabitants of the near-border Georgian villages to restore their trading ties with Ossetia. The statement was made by Merab Chigoyev, who was recently appointed the Persecutor General by the new President of the Republic. As the Regnum media agency reports, the bureaucrat said that ‘closing the market was a major mistake. We need to search points of contact with the Georgians, it would be beneficial for the both countries, and this market was a place where thousands of Osseti and Georgians communicated daily. I see nothing bad about it”.
Chigoyev was already accused by some experts and journalists of ‘betraying Ossetian national interests’ and of ‘blackmailing’ the Kremlin by the very possibility of restoring trade ties with Georgia that were effectively severed in 2004. However, there is yet another point of view on this statement voiced by Georgian experts. According to them the possibility of the actual reopening of the market is close the zero as the Georgian side is most likely to refuse the proposal of Tskhinvali. According to political expert Paata Zakareishvili, cited by the ‘Caucasian knot’ web-page, official Tbilisi wants to isolate the breakaway republic. “They don’t want to take up any steps towards reintegration. They prefer to blame everything on Russia thus posing themselves as victims who need Western help”.
In any case Tbilisi has for now abstained from any definite answer to the proposal referring to the ‘unclear nature’ of the status of those who take up the role of negotiators in this issue. At the same time not only Kremlin opposes this initiative of Ossetia, there are some opponents of this idea within the country: the Popular Party of South Ossetia has already declared that trade ties with Georgia could be restored only when the latter recognizes Ossetia’s independence.
In addition, there’s a opinion suggesting that the restoration of border trade could pose serious threat to the national security of South Ossetia: it could create conditions for smuggling and intelligence activities (it seems that not only Georgian intelligence is implied).
So Chigoyev’s proposition has as many opponents as defenders. But it seems this step was undertaken out of home policy concerns and not foreign policy agenda. The social and economic situation within the country is rather complex. The main problem is finding markets and other sources of income than Russian help. Tibilov’s team will have to figure it out on practice, and they would most definitely need information support.
