GEORGIA, RUSSIA AGREE TO RE-OPEN LAND BORDER CROSSING
By Irakli Metreveli (AFP)

Agence France Presse
Dec 24 2009
France

TBILISI — Georgia and Russia said they had agreed to re-open their
land border to traffic, in the first sign of a thaw in relations
since the two neighbours went to war last year.

The two countries reached a deal under Swiss mediation to re-open
the Upper Lars checkpoint, which was closed in 2006, Georgian Deputy
Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze told journalists in Tbilisi.

It is the only land border crossing that does not pass through
Georgia’s Russian-backed rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
which were the focus of the bitter conflict in 2008.

"The decision to re-open (the border) has been made," Kalandadze said,
adding that Georgia expects the crossing to re-open at the beginning
of March.

Russia’s border service confirmed the two sides had reached an
agreement.

"Delegations from both sides came to a shared understanding of the
need to resume international traffic between Russia and Georgia,
which is planned to begin from March 1, 2010," the border service
said in a statement quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency.

Kalandadze said the agreement would allow Georgian citizens and
cargo to cross the border and that a formal protocol on re-opening
the crossing would be finalised within two weeks.

Despite its closure, Georgia renovated the Upper Lars border crossing
this year with 2.4 million dollars (1.7 million euros) in aid from
the United States, which provided the facility with modern offices
and search equipment.

Russia closed the Upper Lars checkpoint in 2006 in a move Georgian
officials said was motivated by tensions over Tbilisi’s efforts to
build closer ties with the West.

Tensions erupted in August 2008, when Russian forces poured into
Georgia to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake South Ossetia.

Russia later mostly withdrew to within South Ossetia and another rebel
Georgian region, Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent
states, a move so far followed by only Nicaragua, Venezuela and the
Pacific island state of Nauru.

The other two roads linking Georgia and Russia run through South
Ossetia and Abkhazia, effectively barring them to international
traffic.

The closing of the Upper Lars crossing dealt a blow to neighbouring
Armenia, which relied on the crossing as its only overland route to
Russia, the country’s key economic partner.

"Armenia will welcome an agreement between Russia and Georgia to resume
operations at the Upper Lars border crossing point," a spokesman for
Armenia’s foreign ministry, Tigran Balaian, told AFP.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hinted at a thaw in relations with
Georgia this month, saying he saw "no obstacles" to opening the border
crossing and resuming flights between Russia and Georgia.

Russia cut air links with Georgia during the war, only four months
after they had resumed following an 18-month embargo.

Flagship carrier Georgian Airways this week asked Russia to lift the
embargo but has yet to receive a reply.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday that flights
would only resume if Georgia can provide security guarantees.

"The Georgian government has to guarantee the safety of our crews
and guarantee, for instance, that no drugs or weapons will be found
on flights," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

In a sign of lingering tensions, Ivanov likened Georgia to
Afghanistan’s Taliban movement over its demolition at the weekend of
a World War II memorial.

He was apparently referring to the blowing up in 2001 of the famous
1,500 year-old Buddha statues in the city of Bamiyan by the Taliban
on the grounds that they were idolatrous.