Tbilisi tries to hamper Sochi Olympics in all possible ways
While Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was meeting the President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge in Sochi, the Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister, David Jalagania, declared that the forthcoming Sochi Olympics are too hard to organize and conduct in a proper way. And it is clear that Georgia is not going to help solve these problems, but quite the contrary. The Georgian politician stated that the Sochi Games have acquired a non-sporting agenda, as they are to be held on a territory located near occupied Abkhazia, not to mention the illegal transportation of some construction materials from Georgia.
Georgian politicians declare that the Olympics should not be held near a conflict zone where human blood is being shed. And in this connection they are bringing the tragedy to Krasnaya Polyana, where Circassians were subjected to ethnic cleansing in the 19th century after Russian victory in the Caucasian War. Georgia is now trying to gain the support of Circassian organizations.
Eduard Shevardnadze was the first to propose the boycott. He said that the international community should follow the historical example of 1980, when The United States and 64 other countries boycotted the Games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A boycott of the 2014 winter games could become an even bigger political defeat for Russia, as only highly developed (i.e. Western) states usually take part in the winter games, and their absence couldn’t be compensated for by Asian and African participants.
Georgian officials are attacking almost all aspects of Russia's Olympic preparations: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeals to the ‘occupation of Georgian territories’, the Environment Protection Ministry – to the ‘barbaric destruction of the seacoast during Olympic campus construction’, public organizations – to the ‘Circassian genocide’, and the media sorts out all cases of abuse of Sochi residents’ rights during the construction, while Georgian athletes call on their foreign colleagues to boycott the Games as well.
Georgia has never considered Sochi as ‘somebody else's land’, as the very valley where the competition is due to be held is named Imeretinskaya, after the western Georgian province of Imereti. In 1918-1919 Georgia tried to annex Sochi, but failed to do so.
It seems that the Georgian authorities simply don’t have any other way to affect the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. However, we shouldn’t consider these means as inefficient: if Russia now has good relations with Western countries, it doesn’t mean that this fragile balance can be maintained till 2014, and, if it collapses, Western states could really upset the Sochi Olympics. Moreover, the fact that the Games are being held near territories under dispute, whose sovereignty is not recognized by the West, is already complicating the investment process.
Georgiy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, exclusively to VK
