Georgia has accused Russia of violating international law after it erected new “border” markings in
the disputed South Ossetia region, effectively seizing part of a BP-operated
oil pipeline in the process.
While European leaders were focused on resolving the Greek crisis over
the weekend, Russian troops were installing the new signs, pushing their
self-declared border several hundred metres deeper into Georgian territory.
It is the latest in a series of similar surprise Russian operations,
which critics say are part of its creeping annexation of both South Ossetia and
Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian territory.
Russia has occupied the two regions since 2008 in
violation of an internationally agreed ceasefire following its brief war with
Georgia. But
most countries regard South Ossetia and Abkhazia as part of Georgia – with the
pro-Russia separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine among a tiny handful of
bodies to have recognised them as independent.
An earlier Russian fence-building operation in
the same area led to another Georgian farmer being cut off from the rest of his
village.
Officials from the EU’s monitoring mission
(EUMM) say one new sign has been placed 300 metres south of a previous marker
near the village of Orchosani, while another has been moved 1km further south
near Tsitelubani.
They would not say whether this meant Russia had
seized territory beyond South Ossetia’s disputed administrative boundary line.
But spokesman John Durnin said it was a clear sign that what he called Russia’s
“borderization” policy continues, which “creates obstacles to freedom of
movement and the livelihoods of the local population”.
One new Russian- and Ossetian language sign
declaring the area as part of South Ossetia is just a few hundred metres from
Georgia’s main east-west highway, linking the capital with its Black Sea ports
and neighbouring Turkey.
During the 2008 war, Russian tanks used the same
road to move on Tbilisi, stopping 20km short of the capital but demonstrating
Georgia’s vulnerability.
The Baku-Supsa pipeline carries up to 145,000
barrels of oil a day from Azerbaijan’s Caspian oil fields to Georgia’s Supsa
terminal on the Black Sea. Its strategic importance was made clear just before
the 2008 war, when BP had to use it to re-route oil to western markets after
its larger BTC pipeline across Georgia was closed by an explosion.
No doubt conscious of its huge interests in Russia,
BP has sought to play down the dispute. “It doesn’t change anything,” said Gia
Gvaladze, the oil company’s chief spokesman in Georgia. “We don’t need physical
access to maintain it.”
There has been no comment so far from the
Kremlin, but analysts say, as in Ukraine, keeping everyone guessing as to its
intentions is part of its strategy with Georgia.
Some see it as a sign of Moscow underlining its
opposition to the former Soviet republic joining Nato and the EU, mirroring its
position in Ukraine. Russian officials denounced recent joint US-Georgian
military exercises here, aimed at helping it join the alliance.
Russia has also been infuriated by the
appointment of Georgia’s pro-western former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, as
governor of Ukraine’s key Odessa region, right next door to Crimea. The
outspoken Saakashvili has become a symbol of resistance to Russia’s efforts to
maintain its hold over its erstwhile domain in the former Soviet Union. During
the 2008 war, Vladimir Putin famously threatened to “hang Saakashvili by his
balls”.
This sudden flare-up is hugely embarrassing for
the Georgian Dream coalition government, which said it wanted to reduce
tensions with Russia when it took office three years ago. Instead, Moscow has
further entrenched in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Diplomatic ties between the two neighbours are
still suspended, but Georgia’s special envoy to Russia, Zurab Abishidze, has
vowed to raise what he called this “dangerous provocation” at a planned meeting
with Russian officials later this week.
In reality there’s not much Georgia can do – and
western leaders have their minds elsewhere. The European council president,
Donald Tusk, has postponed a planned visit to Georgia this week because of the
Greek crisis.
Many here believe the west failed to heed the
warning signs from the 2008 war about Russia’s wider ambitions.
However, renewed tension in the Caucasus comes
after America’s top military official, Gen Martin Dempsey, recently labelled
Russia as a rising threat to global security, focusing on the danger from what
he called its “hybrid-conflict” strategy in eastern Ukraine.
Such tactics, warned Dempsey, “serve to increase
ambiguity, complicate decision-making and slow the coordination of effective
responses”.
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