Russia-Georgia tensions worsen following Beslan siege
By Simon Wheelan

World Socialist
Oct 11 2004

The school siege at Beslan in the Russian republic of North Ossetia
has exacerbated tensions between Russia and Georgia, its neighbour
in the South Caucasus.

The Russian administration headed by President Vladimir Putin has
utilised the tragedy in a manner similar to that adopted by the
Republican administration in the US after the destruction of the
World Trade Centre on 9/11. The Kremlin has also threatened to
make pre-emptive military strikes outside its own borders against
its enemies. Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia’s top general, declared that
military forces “will carry out all measures to liquidate terrorist
bases in any region of the world.”

The shift towards pre-emptive strikes outside of Russia is not an
idle threat. It already carries out an assassination policy like that
employed by the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and endorsed by
Washington. In February Russian agents assassinated the prominent
Chechen Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev whilst he was residing on the Arabian
Peninsula in Doha, Qatar. The murder was in response to a previous
bomb attack on the Moscow metro, which the Kremlin blames on Chechen
separatists.

Sentencing two Russian agents to 25 years in jail this week, a Qatari
judge stated, “The Russian leadership issued an order to assassinate
the former Chechen leader Yandarbiyev.”

The Russian government has denied any knowledge of the attack.

Putin and other leading government figures have identified Georgia’s
Pankisi Gorge as a possible target for pre-emptive attacks. Thousands
of Chechen refugees live in wretched conditions after having fled
Russian atrocities and are currently seek shelter in the difficult
to penetrate region.

Russian sources claim the refugee community provides the ideal cover
for Chechen rebels to enter Georgia from the Russian republic and to
re-enter other Russian provinces like North Ossetia through Georgia’s
porous and frequently lawless northern borders. Georgia shares its
borders with the impoverished and troubled republics of Ingushetia,
Dagestan, Chechnya and North Ossetia. Russia has since closed all
its borders with Georgia.

Attempting to deflect criticism and avoid a confrontation with superior
Russian military forces, the Georgian authorities have repeatedly
claimed that the Pankisi no longer harbours Chechen rebels. The
current government led by Mikhail Saakashvili blames the deposed
administration of Eduard Shevardnadze for previous incursions by
rebels into and out of Georgia.

The Bush administration in Washington has sent out conflicting
signals. The US State Department backed the claims of the Tbilisi
administration, stating that the Pankisi Gorge was free from rebel
activity. Spokesman Richard Boucher said the Pankisi Gorge “is no
longer a haven for terrorists.” But the US ambassador to Georgia,
Richard Miles, says some international terrorists are still present
in the Gorge.

Seeking to link Georgia to the Beslan tragedy, Russia’s Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that events in South Ossetia, where
the two countries have recently come to blows in a series of military
skirmishes, might well be connected to the school siege. The Russian
media has also sought to draw in the other breakaway Georgian republic
of Abkhazia by suggesting that one of the Beslan hostage takers
is hiding in an area on the border between the two warring parties
controlled by Georgian forces. The Kodori Gorge is held by the Georgian
military and Abkhazian ethnic Georgian forces loyal to Tbilisi.

Presently Russia is on the offensive, but the situation prior to the
Beslan siege was somewhat different. Saakashvili, fresh from wresting
back control of the coastal region of Adjaria from the regional warlord
Aslan Abashidze, decided to chance his luck on the weaker of the two
remaining breakaway republics—South Ossetia.

But just days after entering South Ossetian territory and mounting
repeated exchanges with Russian and South Ossetian troops, Georgian
forces withdrew. Saakashvili tried to rally nationalist sentiment
by warning of a possible war with Russia. But the rout of his South
Ossetian campaign is now derided in parliament as a “fiasco” by the
opposition. Newsweek magazine, which had previously sang Saakashvili’s
praises, predicted that the new president’s star may have already
waned and the opportunity to unify Georgia vanished.

Putin has framed the conflict over South Ossetia as a threat to Russian
sovereignty. But since Beslan, he has gone further and questioned the
very geographical viability of Georgia. Putin declared that Georgia was
“put together very artificially in a similar manner as other creations
in the former Soviet Union”, before blaming Tbilisi for “unfreezing”
the South Ossetian conflict. He added, “No one asked Ossetians and
the Abkhaz whether they want to stay in Georgia.”

In addition to the recent skirmishes over South Ossetia, Moscow has
further enraged the Saakashvili government by reopening train links
between the Russian capital and the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi for
the first time in 11 years. Russia has also stopped Georgian airlines
from using its airspace until some $3.6 million in debts is paid. The
essentially bankrupt state of Georgia was underlined by its recent
loss of voting rights at the United Nations because of unpaid bills.

Meanwhile, Tbilisi continues to strengthen ties with the western
powers and to push for eventual membership of NATO and the European
Union. Robert Simmons, the newly appointed Special Representative for
the Caucasus and Central Asia, recently announced that a NATO liaison
officer will be stationed in Tbilisi and will work closely with the
Defence Ministry “to assist with their defence reform.” European
Commission President Romano Prodi recently encouraged Georgia and
the other Trans-Caucasus nations Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue
their pursuit of EU membership.

Since the ignominious retreat from South Ossetia, Saakashvili has
sought to internationalise the conflict by drawing upon support from
his Western sponsors. In the immediate aftermath of the Beslan siege,
few wished to be seen openly supporting Russia’s enemies. Britain’s
Home Secretary Jack Straw, for example, described the Russian desire
for pre-emptive strikes as “understandable” in the circumstances.
But in contrast, the Bush administration has developed a bellicose
response both to Russia’s policy in Chechnya and in Georgia.

Washington has reiterated its calls for Russia to withdraw its troops
from Georgia, continues to train and equip Georgian forces and is
set to increase its financial assistance to Georgia threefold. In
return Georgian Defence Minister Giorgi Baramidze announced that more
Georgian troops would possibly be sent to bolster American forces
occupying Iraq.

Russia has a vital strategic interest in maintaining control over the
northern Caucasus region and extending its influence into the southern
Caucasus to break a possible US encirclement through its support for
Saakashvili’s Georgian administration and the ruling Aliyev dynasty
in Azerbaijan. Russia aims to thwart US attempts at monopolising the
vital Caspian Sea oil reserves and it should not be forgotten that
Chechnya also possesses significant oil reserves.

America has long sought control over oil supplies from the Caspian
Sea by installing or cultivating compliant regimes in the southern
Caucasus, including Azerbaijan, where the oil is extracted, and
Georgia, across which the $1.5 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
passes. Consequently the US government is committed to thwarting any
attempt by Russia to expand its influence in the Caucasus. Therefore
while the Bush administration has in the past made a show of supporting
Russian efforts to “curb terrorism”, its essential policy is hostility
to all attempts by Russia to dominate the region.

The State Department criticised the August 29 Chechen elections
as being “neither free nor fair” and it has granted asylum to
Ilyas Akhmadov, the foreign minister of Ivan Maskhadov’s opposition
government. Such support has allowed Akhmadov to pursue diplomatic
relations aimed at winning international support for a Republic
of Ichkeria.

Both the US and the EU have called for Russia to negotiate with what
they often describe as the “moderate” Chechen separatists. But France
and Germany are seeking to distance themselves from the US by endorsing
the validity of the August 29 election whilst simultaneously urging
negotiation. Their ambivalence is based on their desire for stronger
relations with Russia to counter American influence in Eastern Europe
and to build lucrative economic relations, particularly in the oil
sector. But they too must seek to free Caspian Sea oil from Russian
hegemony.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress