MOSCOW’S GEORGIANS OPT FOR DISCREET SILENCE
By Vahe Avanesian in Moscow and Sopho Bukia in Tbilisi

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Sept 4 2008
UK

Members of the diaspora community either back the Russian position
or hold their own counsel.

The large Georgian community in Moscow has been watching the latest
conflict in the Caucasus with horror, but members say that they have
been spared the kind of persecution they experienced two years ago,
when many of their ethnic kinsmen were deported.

Tbilisi and Moscow have cut diplomatic ties and are recalling their
ambassadors. Transport links between the two countries, which were
restored only a few months ago, have been severed again.

Gia Janashia (not his real name) is a Georgian with Russian citizenship
who has lived in Moscow for the last 26 years. Last month’s conflict
caught him and his family in western Georgia visiting relatives.

"I hadn’t seen my parents for three years," he said. "There hadn’t been
a direct flight from Moscow for ages and they’d only just restored it,
so I decided to go with my children.

"My wife is Russian and in the first hours of the war [overnight on
August 7-8] she started phoning and begging us to come back. On August
9, we travelled to Tbilisi and when we passed Gori, it was a terrible
sight – apartment blocks were burning. I covered my children’s eyes
with my hands so they wouldn’t see it."

After a nightmarish four-day trip, Janashia and his children travelled
to the Armenian capital Yerevan, where they managed to get on a flight
to Moscow.

Now back in the Russian capital, Janashia insists he is not being
made to suffer because of his ethnicity.

"My Georgian friends and I are not having any problems at all,"
he. "I was expecting a repeat of the nightmare we went through in
2006, but no, everything’s been fine. The main thing is not to forget
to curse [Georgian president Mikheil] Saakashvili as roundly as you
can. Everyone here likes that, from policemen to shop assistants."

In 2006, in the worst confrontation between Moscow and Tbilisi prior
to the war that broke out this August, hundreds of Georgians were
deported from Russia in retaliation for the expulsion of four Russian
officers accused of espionage.

Russia cut all communications and banned imports of wine and mineral
water from Georgia.

The ban on Georgian wine, a favourite among Russians for many decades,
came as a blow to wine merchants like Mikheil Poladishvili, who has
lived in Moscow for more than 30 years and owns a shop selling alcohol
in the city centre.

He recalled the regular inspections that followed, saying, "It wasn’t
because I’m Georgian; it was just that we weren’t allowed to sell
Georgian wine, which we don’t."

In the wake of the recent conflict, he said, "everything has got much
harder. It’s heartbreaking that…Georgia has launched a war against
Russia. But we carry on living and working, and just try not to watch
the news on TV. People are treating us the same as normal."

As was the case during previous crises, people from the Caucasus
visiting Moscow have complained of police harassment.

Samed Shahinov, a student from Azerbaijan, told IWPR how police
stopped him and his friends in Moscow’s Pushkin Square and searched
them in a rough manner, simply because they had foreign passports.

The official line has been to urge police to show restraint. A senior
official in the Moscow city administration told IWPR that the security
agencies had received instructions from above that "in the current
situation, any action against Georgians will do us more harm than
the Saakashvili regime can".

The official, who did not want to be named, explained, "They don’t
want to repeat the mistakes of autumn 2006, when they naively thought
that the Georgians in Russia were unhappy with the situation and would
[work to] get rid of Saakashvili quickly."

President Dmitry Medvedev has publicly ordered Interior Minister Rashid
Nurgaliev to ensure that "all foreigners who are legally resident in
Russia do not experience any harassment".

Another difference from the situation two years ago is that prominent
Georgian individuals and organisations in Russia have spoken out
against the Saakashvili government, blaming it for the conflict
with Moscow.

"A lot of people actually feel that way," said Janashia. "There’s
nothing surprising about that – we watch the Russian Federation
TV channels."

He added, however, that Georgians in Russia were not in a position
to voice disagreement even if that is how they felt.

"If anyone thinks differently, they can’t say so aloud," he said. "Lots
of Georgians here have families and jobs – their whole life is here
– so they have no other option, or else they will face the same
as Kikabidze."

Vakhtang Kikabidze is a popular Georgian singer living in Moscow who
gained star status in a famous Soviet film, "Mimino". After coming
out in support of the Georgian government over the conflict and
handing back a Russian Order of Friendship awarded him by Medvedev,
he was publicly berated as a "traitor to Russia".

Another popular Georgian singer, Nani Bregvadze, has cancelled concerts
in St Petersburg.

These dissident voices are, however, the exception, and the majority
of leading Georgian diaspora figures have lined up to back the Kremlin.

Vladimir Khomeriki, who heads the Russian-Georgian Peoples’ Unity
Fund, welcomed Moscow’s decision to recognise Abkhazia and South
Ossetia as independent states.

Janashia dismisses many of the Moscow-based diaspora groups as "front
organisations" backed by city mayor Yury Luzhkov. With that in mind,
he said, "no one expected anything more from them. Representatives of
these organisations remained silent when Georgians were being loaded
up and deported like cattle in 2006."

While they insist their community is not being targeted, Georgians
in Russia have felt increasingly uncomfortable because of the often
lurid media coverage of the crisis, in which Saakashvili is denounced
and the Georgian state portrayed as entirely hostile.

That sense of unease is strengthened by accusations that Georgian spies
and subversives are operating within Russia. Alexander Bortnikov, the
head of the Russian intelligence service, the FSB, announced recently
that nine Georgian secret-service agents had been arrested for spying
on military installations and making plans for terrorist attacks.

Bortnikov’s warning that in addition to the alleged spies, a "group
of 12 foreign fighters" had been captured led to Russian TV showing
footage of the detained men purportedly confessing to their crimes.

This kind of hostile reporting has prompted many Georgians to consider
returning home.

Natia Katashvili has been working for almost a year with a large IT
company in Moscow. Now she is counting the days until her contract
expires in October and she can go back to Georgia.

"Every day since the war began, I’ve been talking to my family
and friends in Georgia for hours on end," she said. "They don’t
understand how I can live in an enemy country. They tell me what is
actually happening. And that picture has nothing in common with what
the Russian media are saying.

"I’m sure a lot of Georgians will leave here after our own country
has been wrecked in this manner."

Vahe Avanesian is a freelance journalist in Moscow. Sopho Bukia is
IWPR’s Georgia editor based in Tbilisi.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress