Viktoria Panfilova exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The meeting in Prague devoted to improving Russian-Georgian relations has more disappointed Tbilisi than improved its hopes for a quick progress. The most acute question for the Georgian side – the shifting of South Ossetia’s border by the Russian army – wasn’t discussed. The deputy minister of foreign affairs of Russia, Grigory Karasin, only promised that the situation would be discussed at the next session of the Geneva consultation on preventing tension in the South Caucasus.
The special representative of the Georgian Premier on improving Russian-Georgian relations, Zurab Abashidze, told journalists that he informed Karasin that the border had been shifted several hundred meters into the territory controlled by Tbilisi. So the residents of the villages of Ditsi and Dvani lost a part of their land. Moreover, several houses appeared beyond barbed wire installed by the military.
“According to Karasin, after a thorough investigation of the issue, it will be discussed in Geneva,” the Georgian diplomat said. In Prague, Karasin and Abashidze summed up results of six months of the restoration of direct Russian-Georgian contacts: restoration of trade relations, transport communication, the work of Verkhny Lars Checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border. They also touched on liberalization of the visa regime for Georgian citizens coming to Russia.
It would be naïve to state that the Georgian authorities expected from the Prague talks the restoration of the border line near the villages of Dvani and Ditsi. However, it seems the situation could develop under a less desirable scenario for them. The minster for reintegration, Paata Zakareishvili, stated that the behavior of the Russian side can be explained by their intentions to involve Tbilisi in negotiations on an appeared or provoked problem, which would lead to discussion of the problem of South Ossetia’s status. This is not in Georgia’s interests.
Such negotiations have no prospects: considering the tough position of Tbilisi on the territorial integrity, the consultations in Geneva will grind to halt in the best case. As the result, the Foreign Ministry of Georgia stated that it is unclear why Moscow wants a worsening of relations when Tbilisi is doing its best to improve them.
At the same time the Russian authorities should ask: what exactly do Georgian authorities do to improve the relations? And they will get the answer from Premier Ivanishvili’s words: “We haven’t done anything extraordinary, but we rejected the language of hatred,” as he said to one of Georgian periodicals.
The Russian side has indifferently treated the information from Georgia that, for instance, songs in Russian are available in public places again, which was forbidden by the former authorities. All over Georgia the Russian language classes are being organized and there is a demand for tutors. Comments on this were rather poor: they are like “it is alright, but we expect something more.”
However, the situation with “something more” is more difficult. Georgia doesn’t plan to deny the European Atlantic course. At least at the declarative level none of significant politicians, especially top officials, hasn’t doubted the pro-Western vector of foreign policy.
