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Two weeks after the first wave of Georgian deportations from Russia, Russia has started using Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia to deport Georgian citizens, while it is reported that Georgian citizens have to pay USD 1000 to make their way home by this route. Talking to The Messenger head of the interim parliamentary committee on territorial integrity Shota Malashkhia confirmed that Russia is using Abkhazia to deport Georgians. "Zugdidi law enforcement has recorded that Georgians enter the country through breakaway Abkhazia. However I cannot say yet whether it is an official decision of Russian government or not," he told The...

Abkhazia broke away from Georgia after a war in 1992-93, but so far no nation has recognised it. Georgia, entangled in a row with Russia, accuses Moscow of backing Abkhaz separatists. The parliament of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia asked Russia on Wednesday to recognise its independence and openly adopt the role of the Black Sea province's patron. Abkhazia broke away from Georgia after a war in 1992-93, but so far no nation has recognised it. Georgia, entangled in a row with Russia, accuses Moscow of backing Abkhaz separatists. "The People's Assembly of the Republic of Abkhazia has decided to...

Russia and Georgia have opened a new front in their feud over the disputed territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian and Georgian envoys traded harsh words at the United Nations. Russia asked the U.N. Security Council Tuesday to condemn Georgia's military activities in its breakaway region of Abkhazia. Vitaly Churkin (file photo) Moscow's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin circulated a draft Security Council resolution calling on Georgia to withdraw its troops from Abkhazia's disputed Kodori Gorge region. The long-simmering Russia-Georgia tensions erupted last week when Georgia detained four Russian military observers in Tbilisi, accusing them of spying. Russia responded...

TV NZ.co New Zealand Russia refuses to lift Georgia ban Tbilisi, capital city of Georgia Oct 4, 2006 Russia has rejected US and EU calls to lift economic sanctions on Georgia, saying it had cut transport links to curb a dangerous military build-up by its pro-Western neighbour. In unusually strident remarks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at the United States. US support for Georgia had "stimulated" Tbilisi into taking unfriendly steps against Russia, he said. Russia cut rail, air and postal links with the former Soviet republic in response to the arrest of four Russian soldiers on spying...

At a dinner for Western experts and journalists on Sept. 9, President Vladimir Putin of Russia issued a stern warning over impending Western moves to grant a form of conditional independence to Kosovo. He said that Russia would use any such move as a precedent for solutions to the existing "frozen conflicts" in the Georgian autonomous republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. These are under de facto Russian military protection, just as Kosovo is under NATO military protection. This is a warning that the West should take extremely seriously. It was in marked contrast to the conciliatory tone of President...

Within the last month Russian-Georgian relations have worsened sharply. A number of hostile actions and gestures from both sides of a political, military and economic nature have escalated the tension. The main objects of the conflict are the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, formally parts of Georgia but de facto independent. While Tbilisi has recently intensified its actions to regain control over both republics, Moscow has threatened Georgia with military intervention should Tbilisi begin an armed operation against the separatists. The situation in the region is so serious at the moment that outbreaks of fighting in both separatist republics...

PRAGUE, July 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has ordered the Abkhaz government in exile to move from Tbilisi to the Kodori Gorge. The move is a bold step toward restoring central control over the breakaway province. The Kodori Gorge, a remote mountain valley in the northeast of Abkhazia, is the only part of the province still controlled by the Georgian authorities. Most of Abkhazia has been ruled independently of Tbilisi since achieving de facto independence in 1993.

PRAGUE, July 26, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Early on July 25, Georgia deployed up to 1,000 troops to the lower reaches of the Kodori Gorge, which straddles Georgia and Abkhazia, in a bid to rein in an armed Svan militia commanded by the region's former governor, Emzar Kvitsiani. The Svans are an ethnic group closely related to the Georgians, and their traditional home is in the high mountains of northwest Georgia. The military situation, and Kvitsiani's whereabouts, remain unclear. The Georgian television station Rustavi-2 reported on July 26 that at least four people, including two police officers, were hospitalized after fighting...

July 25, 2006 -- Tensions are rising on the Georgian border amid claims that Georgia is deploying soldiers in a bid to disarm a militia leader. Georgia's Imedi television channel says 500 Georgian troops headed to the Kodori Gorge early on July 25, lending credence to claims by authorities in the breakaway republic of Abkhazia that Georgia is building up its military presence near its border. News agencies report Russian peacekeepers as saying they have stopped a dozen soldiers and two armored vehicles at a checkpoint on the way to the Kodori Gorge. The Kodori Gorge district is the only...

SUKHUMI, Georgia (Reuters) - Russian tourists will crowd the beaches of Abkhazia all summer. Officially, they are holidaying in a war zone, but where else can they find such a cheap week in the sun? "This is our second year, we like it here. There isn't even the smell of war any more," said Alexander Grigoryev, a 32-year-old who made the 36-hour train journey from the Volga region to splash around in the warm waters of the Black Sea. "We have sensed nothing but friendliness, we are renting an apartment with a little sauna and a little pool." This little...

Certain analysts feel that Russia's rhetoric regarding the existing conflicts in Georgia has radically changed. Representatives of official Moscow are starting to refuse to acknowledge Georgia's territorial integrity and name the principle of "national self-determination" as an argument in support of this stance. However, at the same time Putin declared that Russia is not going to add any 'new territories' to its current borders. This uncertainty in Russian-Georgian relations may also be caused by the pending Putin-Saakashvili meeting that is to take place in St. Petersburg on June 13. Georgia's territorial integrity was put under question by Russian Foreign Affairs...

Montenegro's independence could open a Pandora's box for other separatist movements in Europe and the former Soviet Union, with some already claiming the right to follow the same path. Separatists in Spain's Basque and Catalan regions were among the first to welcome Montenegro's independence vote as a positive omen for their aspirations of loosening ties with Madrid. But Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stressed the situations in his country and Montenegro were "politically, diplomatically, juridically" incomparable and that making such a comparison would represent a "great irresponsibility". His view was supported by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana,...

SUKHUM, Abkhazia -- At first glance the tiny self-declared republic of Abkhazia on the eastern coast of the Black Sea is an earthly paradise. For decades its palm trees, warm scented air, and long beaches drew thousands of holidaymakers from across the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev relaxed on its shores. Even today, it is famed for its gentle climate, its mandarin oranges, and its sweeping boughs of yellow mimosa blossom. But look closer, and there are signs of an uglier past. Side streets in the seaside capital, Sukhum, are dominated by the gutted remains of smoke-blackened houses,...

Mar 6 2006 1:16PM Abkhazia may support South Ossetia in case of war - official MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Abkhaz Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab objects to a pullout of Russian peacekeepers from the unrecognized republic and says that Sukhumi might assist South Ossetia if the conflict escalates. "Abkhazia has declared 2006 the year of South Ossetia. No one can deny us the right to help [in case of hostilities in South Ossetia]," he said in an interview published in the Monday issue of the newspaper Vremya Novostei. Ankvab said that he feels very "negative" about the tensions surrounding South...

Tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow rose further this week with the latter saying it would indefinitely stop issuing entry visas for Georgian nationals and requesting that Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli postpone a planned working visit to Russia. The new escalation comes days after Georgian lawmakers called for a review of the 1992 peace agreement that put an end to the war with South Ossetia and voted Russian peacekeepers out of the separatist republic.

The world has noticed Russia's use of energy as a political weapon to pressure neighboring Western-oriented states. Now it appears that Russia does not intend to confine itself to energy to tame "intractable" neighbors but contemplates a far more conventional and well-tried weapon -- the use of military force. The new Russian national security doctrine outlined by Russia's defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, on your editorial page -- "Russia Must Be Strong," Jan. 11 -- clearly states that Russia's top national security concern is the "internal situation" in some members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Mr. Ivanov justified military force...

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, on his arrival in Germany yesterday on an official visit, called Russia a “very rich, insidious, malicious and experienced enemy.” Shortly before that, Georgian Ambassador to the UN Revaz Adamia accused Russia of genocide of Georgians. Thus Georgian officials are doing everything they can to place Russian-Georgian differences on a world level and gain Western support in the issue of withdrawing Russian peacekeepers from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A Blow against Peacekeepers The war of words between Russia and Georgia reached a new height on February 1. The cause of the escalation was a collision between...

Russia has withdrawn support for an international plan to grant autonomy to the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, raising fears it could shift its backing more clearly towards Abkhazian calls for secession. The move came as the United Nations Security Council prepared to renew the mandate of a UN monitoring force there, and has prompted western diplomatic concern over Russia’s intentions in the region. Russia said during a closed-door meeting in New York that it could no longer allow reference to a 2000 paper drafted by the former UN special representative Dieter Boden on Abkhazia’s future. The paper talked of...

Russia's use of natural gas to exert economic and political pressure on Ukraine has caused grave concern in the West. But Russia's pressure on Georgia has been even heavier - and has scarcely been noticed. In Georgia, as in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to implement the doctrine of a "liberal empire" put forward in October 2003 by Anatoli Chubais, the chairman of United Energy System (RAO UES), Russia's energy monopoly. According to Chubais, Russia will never find a place in either NATO or the European Union, so it must create an alternative to both, a new empire of...

Tbilisi. December 06 (Prime-News) – “The leaders of the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia refuse to negotiate with the government of Georgia. But to negotiate with this government of Georgia is difficult, impossible in fact. So Sokhumi and Tskhinvali are right. The government of Georgia changes its political views every day”, goes the interview of with Maia Nikoleishvili, featured on Russian UÒÐÎ.RU website. Maia Nikoleishvili is one of the leaders of Anti-Soros Movement, supporting Igor Giorgadze, former Georgian KGB boss, internationally wanted for terrorist attack against Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgian ex-president. “I do not think myself a pro-Russian person....

Moscow Denies U.S. Mediation in Georgia 02/01/2006 21:26 Russian Foreign Ministry denied on December 30 that the United States are involved in mediation process to solve conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Speaking at the European Institute in Washington on December 15, the U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said that “in Georgia, we are bridging gaps between Tbilisi, Moscow, and local leaders in the rest of Georgia.” “It is well-known that in frames of current negotiating format, Russia facilitates settlement of the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-South Ossetian conflicts. We do not know anything about the U.S. “bringing gaps” between Tbilisi...

Head of Ingur Hydroelectric Power Station security service Amiran Uratadze, born in 1947, was killed in the village of Dikhazurga (Abkhazia) on December 11. As a REGNUM correspondent in Sukhumi reports, citing Abkhaz Interior Minister Otar Khetsia, on December 11, at 13:30 local time five unidentified armed persons stopped a car driven by Austrian citizen Ernst Missebner, Siemens Company engineer working on the rehabilitation of the hydroelectric station, and opened fire. In the car, apart from Uratadze, two women and a 7-year-old girl were. At the moment of the clash Uratadze used his weapon and managed to produce several shots....

SUKHUMI, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - The prime minister of the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia said Wednesday that Georgia's breakaway republic was an independent state and will never be a part of Georgia again. "We are free people and are building an independent state," Alexander Ankvab told U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John F. Tefft. "In August 1992, the Georgian leadership decided to eliminate Abkhazians," he said, adding that Abkhazian people would never forget the price they had paid for victory. "Unfortunately, the current statements by Georgian leaders are not helping to stabilize our relations," the premier said. The sides also...

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov.) Washington has officially announced its readiness to join the talks on the settlement of the long and slowly developing Transdnestr conflict. The self-proclaimed republic is trying to protect its independence from the encroachments of Moldova. The U.S. State Department has also expressed a desire to become a major player on another "field of contention" in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - South Ossetia. This enclave is trying to gain independence from Georgia, especially after the bloody clashes of the early 1990s, when both sides lost thousands of lives. To make a...

On October 15 in Moscow, officials from the presidential administration and other Kremlin-connected figures hosted a "Forum on Democracy and Multiculturalism in the Euro-East." The participants included representatives of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Karabakh, activists of pro-Russia parties and associations from several post-Soviet countries, and Moscow figures who -- according to Kremlin consultant Gleb Pavlovsky, speaking at the Forum -- "play a major if often shadowy role in developing Russia's real policy" (Regnum, October 15). Outlining geopolitical challenges and opportunities to Russia, Pavlovsky noted that the United States is focusing its hostile attention on Belarus, "our basic military-political ally."...

SUKHUMI, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - The president of Abkhazia, a self-proclaimed independent republic on Georgian territory, said he would not agree to the deployment of U.S. and EU peacekeeping forces in the region. "The CIS peacekeeping troops were sent to the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone in line with the May 14, 1994 agreement on a ceasefire and the disengagement of forces," Sergei Bagapsh said, responding to a proposal by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to involve the United States and the European Union in the peacemaking process. "Abkhazia does not plan on making any amendments to the document." "No other countries...

President Mikheil Saakashvili said at a news conference on September 9, that Russia support militarization of the breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia. “We are watching the conflict zones closely. Militarization is underway with the Russian assistance. We should find new approach with Russia... This [conflict in South Ossetia] is not a problem between Ossetians and Georgians; this is a problem between Russia and Georgia. We should settle our relations over this territory [South Ossetia],” Saakashvili said. “I have talked about this with Putin and I am expecting pragmatic response now,” he added. He said that Georgia will solve conflicts through...

Chaos swirls around Abkhazia, breakaway republic in once-Soviet Georgia. The grenade-thrower who targeted President Bush in May, $80,000 on his head, has been captured in a raid which may or may not have involved the FBI. Last month, Russia agreed to pull its forces from all Georgian territory -- through Abkhazia, where the agreement has no force and the Kremlin keeps hundreds of peacekeepers. And in 2003, Georgian Minister of State Security Valeri Khaburdzania warned anyone reading the National Interest that "Wahhabi organizations have sprung up on the territory of Abkhazia, and where Wahhabis are, terrorists are not far behind."...

TBILISI, Georgia, May 10 - President Bush told tens of thousands of cheering Georgians packed into the city's Freedom Square on Tuesday that the United States would stand with Georgia, a former Soviet republic, as it built its young democracy, and then pointedly he warned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that the sovereignty of Georgia "must be respected by all nations." A screen set up on a street in Tbilisi, Georgia, showed the departure of President Bush's plane on Tuesday after the president concluded his meetings with Georgia's leaders on the last stop of his five-day European trip. On...

TBILISI, Georgia -- For 60 years the word "Yalta" has meant betrayal and abandonment. The diplomatic accord reached between Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States in that sleepy Black Sea resort relegated millions of people to a ruthless tyranny. As President Bush said last week in Latvia: "The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable." Thankfully, the division of Europe created at Yalta, and the Iron Curtain that marked its boundary, are ghosts in our past. The...

Russia has seen its influence in the Caucasus - and the rest of the former Soviet Union - wane significantly since the November 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia. Although economics play a part in the drive to become closer to the United States and the European Union, Moscow largely blames post-revolution Georgia for the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine and its perceived loss of influence there. While Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko were in Strasburg for a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin made no secret of meeting separatist leaders in Moscow,...

Yesterday Moscow hosted Pro-Russian leaders of three unrecognized republics of the former Soviet Union – Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Pridniestrovie, who arrived in Moscow in time, when the allegedly anti-Russian leaders went to Strasbourg. Moreover, another “Moscow protégé” Viktor Yanukovich happened to be in the city. The above politicians looked as if their simultaneous visit had been a mere coincidence. For instance, Abkhaz president told the reporters yesterday he didn’t know South Ossetia’s leader Eduard Kokoita was also in Moscow, specifying that he would be glad to meet him. South Ossetia’s President Eduard Kokoita has been in talks with Yuri...

This article appeared in Military Review June-July 1997 Introduction As the 20th Century draws to a close, military theorists and planners, in and out of uniform, are considering the implications that changes in the global security environment have for future conflict and war. The certainties of the Cold War have been replaced by a number of indeterminate, indistinct threats. As Desert Storm proved, the US military remains prepared to defeat large conventional forces, but is it ready to tackle those obscure dangers looming on the horizon? Consider the recent comments of the Marine Corps Commandant: "future war is most likely...

The repeat presidential vote in Abkhazia will be watched most closely by Russia - the only country to have sent official election monitors. Abkhazia, while legally still part of Georgia, is effectively a Russian protectorate, where locals have Russian passports and use Russian roubles. However loud the protestations of the Georgian leadership, Abkhazia has moved much closer to Russia. Many of the steps needed for Abkhazia to join Russia have already been taken. As well as common passports and money, there have been reforms to unify the two legal systems. Importantly, Abkhazia remains a useful bargaining chip in the Kremlin's...

Like Ukraine just weeks ago, Abkhazia faces a rerun of a disputed election. But the results of the 12 January vote do not need to be counted for the outcome to be known. The winner of the first round, Sergei Bagapsh, will become the president of this would-be state while his erstwhile rival, Raul Khadjimba, will become his prime minister. In short, the result of three months that have torn up the fabric of Abkhazia’s domestic politics and its relationship with Russia is a stitch-up. A look at the course of events in November and early December explains the odd...

Between five and 10 illegal vessels have been risking the journey each month, Bochoroshvili said, primarily by hugging the coast near the Russian border, and dashing the short distance to Abkhazia's ports. The Izabel I was a repeat offender, he said, having made the run several times. On June 30, Georgian Patrol Boat 203 saw the latest attempt, ordered the vessel to stop in three languages and fired two warning shots across its bow, according to Bochoroshvili and Lt. Badri Ivanadze, the commanding officer of the boat. "I was trying to talk with them but they did not answer," Ivanadze...

Moscow wants a rerun of elections in … Abkhazia. And with Russia now turning the screw very tight, bloodshed seems more likely by the day in this Russian protectorate.SUKHUMI, Abkhazia—Entering the headquarters of Sergei Bagapsh in Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, you could be forgiven for thinking that Bagapsh is already the president of this self-styled independent state. Ever since elections in October, a throng of his supporters has stood outside his headquarters, greeting visitors with the words, “The president is in.” And Bagapsh already appears more like a de facto president than one of two candidates in a disputed...

Russian warns of Abkhazia intent By Natalia Antelava BBC News, Tbilisi Russia may intervene in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia to protect its interests there, if a post- election crisis escalates further. In response, Georgia has called on the international community to protect the country's sovereignty. A decade-long row between Georgia and Russia over Abkhazia is getting worse. One person is reported to have died in clashes on Friday between government and opposition supporters in the Abkhaz regional capital Sukhumi. Moscow has accused the opposition in Abkhazia of attempting to overthrow the Russian-backed government and has pledged to intervene if...

POTENTIAL HOT SPOTS: Georgia and AbkhaziaItems About Areas That Could Break Out Into War December 1, 2002; With American trainers still in the Georgian Republic, Abkhazia's new Prime Minister is seeking broader ties with Russia. The political jockeying is the result of continuing squabbles between Christian Georgia and secessionist Moslem Abkhazia, which have remained strained since the 1992-1993 war that made Abkhazia independent. At risk is British Petroleum's plans to build oil and gas pipelines to Turkey from Azerbaijan. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline would run from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, along with a parallel natural-gas line along the...

Georgia accuses Abkhazian forces, Russian border guards of crossing into Georgian territory Mon Aug 12, 9:36 AM ET By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI, Associated Press Writer TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia on Monday accused Russian border guards and separatist forces of crossing illegally into Georgian-controlled territory and firing at a Georgian helicopter — the latest sign of worsening relations between the two former Soviet republics. Both Russia and Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia denied the accusations, and an Abkhazian official insisting it was Georgia that invaded its territory. Abkhazia, a lush province on the Black Sea, won de facto independence from Georgia in...