Kommersant, Russia
March 16 2005

Abkhazia Prepares to Become Part of Georgia

// As far as the Russian military is concerned

Friendship of the Nations

Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh has returned from his first visit
to Moscow as president. He told a press conference on Tuesday that
the issues he discussed there were of a purely economic nature.
Something else was clear from his statements, however. Everything
that is economic in the unrecognized state is inseparable from the
political.

Bagapsh did not specify whom he met with in Moscow. He only said that
he met with Russian ministers and businessmen and discussed potential
investments in the resort industry and energy supplies. He also said
that he raised the question of restoring railroad connections between
Russia and Abkhazia and beyond, through Georgia to Armenia. It is
hard to say whether that question is more pressing for Moscow or
Sukhumi. That rail line connects Abkhazia with Russia, and Russia
with its military bases in Armenia. Georgia will have a different
reaction to the issue, since the restoration of the rail line will
strengthen both Abkhazia and the Russian military presence in the
Transcaucasus. But Abkhazian officials intend to win Georgia’s
agreement to the project in their next negotiations. It is likely to
be another one of the issues that Georgia will have to settle in
order to attain other concessions from Abkhazia. The next meeting
between Abkhazian, Georgian and Russian officials on settlement of
the regional conflict will take place in Geneva in April.

The Abkhazians reacted quickly to the strain over Russian military
bases in Georgia. They offered the Russian military accommodation in
Abkhazia in exchange for the bases that they are sooner or later sure
to lose in Georgia. The possibility of a Russian base returning to
Gudauta is, in the words of Bagapsh, `a positive factor.’ He
mentioned that Russian and Georgia were negotiating the establishment
of a joint antiterrorism center and, in that connection, he met with
`several law-enforcement officials’ and suggested that `one of those
centers could be a military base in Gudauta, where all the conditions
for it already are in place. That is a normal process and we have
always been in favor of keeping the bases, since the Russian bases in
Abkhazia are a factor for the stability of the republic. Therefore,
our position here is unequivocal.’

Georgia has been insistently raising the issue of replacing Russian
peacekeepers in Abkhazia with contingents from other countries, from
Ukraine or NATO, for instance. `Of course, one side can demand the
withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers,’ Bagapsh commented. `But it
requires the agreement of both sides to introduce a new contingent.
Our side has a very definite opinion about it and it is very simple.
There is no need to talk about Russian aggression in the
Transcaucasus and so on. It’s just that, when we were having a hard
time after the war in 1992-1993, nobody and came stood along that
line. Only Russia came. No other republic of the CIS sent its
soldiers. The Russian peacekeepers took the hardest part on
themselves. And they left behind 96 dead. We shouldn’t forget that.
That means that we will not let any other peacekeeping forces except
Russian onto our territory. And if it happens that the Russian
peacekeepers leave, we will take up their positions ourselves. But
that will mean an escalation.’ With that statement, the president
ended the months-long discussion of the pro-Georgian position of his
block. It is clear that he had no pro-Georgian position, and never
will now. It can also be seen that his trip to Moscow was even more
productive than he admits.

That may be why Bagapsh has stated very strongly that rumors of
disagreements between him and vice president Raul Khadzhimba, who is
considered a Kremlin puppet, are groundless. And that the recent
attempt on the life of Abkhazian Prime Minister and presidential
adviser Alexander Ankvaba s not the doing of the Kremlin, but of the
local criminal groups that control the political life of the
republic.

`The investigation is continuing, but no one has been arrested so
far,’ Bagapsh said. `Several people from the criminal elements were
taken into custody and then released because investigators think it
was a political act. I hope that the investigation will uncover who
is behind it, although the handwriting is similar to notorious
murders in Abkhazia before it. Therefore, it has been suggested that
it was a directed effort by someone’s henchmen. We’ll find out
whose.’

Bagapsh also met with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II on
Tuesday. They discussed the participation of the Russian Orthodox
Church in the restoration of the Novoafonsky and Iversky Monasteries.
The Church has actually been involved supporting those monasteries
for a long time already. The Abkhazian president understood, of
course, while talking of the importance of restoring those
monasteries, that, in Russia, where Church and state are practically
inseparable, a meeting with the Patriarch is a strong sign of support
from the Kremlin.

by Olga Allenova