Georgië vraagt G8 om hulp bij Russische blokkade (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With the G8 summit less than 24 hours away, small post-Soviet country Georgia wants the EU to send a message to Russia to stop bullying its neighbours with economic blockades, amid escalating tension in the EU's Black Sea neighbourhood.

"We are not asking anyone to isolate Russia or to go back to Cold War language," Georgia's EU ambassador Salome Samadashvili told EUobserver on Thursday (13 July). "But we hope the EU sends a message that if you want to be a member of the industrialised, democratic nations there are certain rules, that having energy reserves does not excuse everything."

Tensions rose between Russia and post-Rose Revolution state Georgia on 8 July when Russia closed the Larsi border crossing - the only legal crossing between the two countries - cutting off transit for Georgian and Armenian people and trade.

Russia says the move is needed to stymie Georgian smuggling gangs, but Georgia sees the blockade as the latest in a series of Russian moves to poison bilateral relations and problematise Georgia's post-2003 pro-NATO and pro-EU political orientation.

Russia in May and June banned imports of Georgian wine and mineral water. It maintains business interests and 2,000 to 3,000 "peacekeeping" troops in the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In January, Russian gas pipes to Georgia mysteriously blew up.

With South Ossetia existing as a de facto state for some 15 years, Ms Samadashvili warns that the region has become a hub of criminal activity that poses a danger to wider European security no matter how remote the Black Sea might seem to public opinion in the west.

"It's not just some piece of land that concerns only Georgians...this is your neighbourhood," she said. "[In the past few months] we have arrested people carrying false dollars from this region that end up in far away places, people involved in drug trafficking, people smuggling nuclear materials."

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s in civil wars that saw some 25,000 dead and 350,000 refugees. Russia originally trained Chechen guerrilla Shamil Basayev to fight Georgians in Abkhazia before it "assassinated" him on 10 July, Ms Samadashvili said.

Pre-G8 tension

In a further sign of worsening relations, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday told press that Russian secret service agents had uncovered a Georgian plot to stage provocative military action on the South Ossetia border during the G8 summit.

"I hope all that talk is ungrounded because otherwise it will be a signal for new bloodshed," Mr Lavrov told Russian newswire Ria Novosti. Russian president Vladimir Putin has also indicated that Abkhazia and South Ossetia should look to Montenegro and Kosovo as models for independence.

But Tbilisi's view is diametrically opposed to Moscow's, with Ms Samadashvili saying that Georgia is committed to an OSCE blueprint for peaceful conflict resolution, despite some belligerent statements by individual Georgian parliamenterians.

"The Georgian government is trying very hard to normalise relations with our neighbour and unfortunately they are doing, in a very persistent way, the opposite," she stated.

The ambassador indicated that any referendums on independence in Abkhazia or South Ossetia would be illegitimate because Russia in the 1990s aided separatist forces in expelling 350,000 Georgians from Abkhazia and there are no UN agreements on how to decide the regions' status.

Ms Samadashvili also scorned Mr Putin's recent remarks that the western critique of Russian political values is a form of "neo-collonialism." Mr Putin said on 12 July that the west has replaced "civilisation" with "democratisation" in a new rhetoric that smacks of Europe's 19th century African adventure.

"It is neo-collonialism when you are trying to prevent your neighbours from taking the course of development they have chosen for themselves," the ambassador stated. "The bottom line is that Georgia is an independent country that is free to make its own choices about its future."

Georgian realism

In contrast to other post-Soviet states Ukraine and Moldova, which are seeking clear EU political statements that they will one day join the club, Georgia is prioritising NATO membership and is happy with the European Neighbourood Policy framework for EU relations.

"We are realistic," Ms Samadashvili indicated, referring to the EU's sensitive internal debate on future enlargement as well as the fact that Georgia still has some way to go before it becomes "a functional western democracy," with some NGOs criticising it on electoral and press freedom standards.

She declined to attack the EU for its refusal to send border monitors to Abkhazia and South Ossetia despite saying that an international presence is needed to revive the moribund OSCE peace plan based on demilitarisation, bigger EU aid flows and multilateral status talks.

"We need to have an international presence in the Roki Tunnel [controlling access to South Ossetia] and there is reluctance from everyone to do so because Russia is opposed to the idea," Ms Samadashvili said.

Hint of grievance

But scratch the surface, and there is a hint of grievance that Europe has forgotten its support for Georgia's Rose Revolution almost three years ago.

"In the past 60 years, our history was the same as Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states," the ambassador indicated. "The only difference is that we were conquered by the Soviet empire 30 years before they were."