GEORGIA, RUSSIA AGREE TO RE-OPEN BORDER CROSSING: TBILISI

Agence France Presse
December 24, 2009 Thursday 9:29 AM GMT

Georgia and Russia have agreed to re-open their land border to traffic,
Georgia’s foreign ministry said Thursday, in the first sign of a thaw
in relations after their bitter 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 said.

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

"The decision to re-open (the border) has been made," she told
journalists, adding that Georgia expects the crossing to re-open by
the beginning of March.

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.

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

Tensions erupted in August 2008, when Russian forces poured into
Georgia to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake South Ossetia,
which had received extensive backing from Moscow for years.

Russia later mostly withdrew to within South Ossetia and another rebel
Georgian region, Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent
states, a move that has so far been 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 also dealt a heavy blow
to neighbouring Armenia, which relied on the crossing as its only
overland route to Russia, the country’s key economic partner.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hinted at a thaw in relations with
Georgia earlier this month, saying he saw "no obstacles" to opening
the Upper Lars crossing and resuming direct 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.

Georgia’s flagship airline this week asked Russia to lift the embargo
but has yet to receive a reply.

Privately owned Georgian Airways said in a statement that the company
had requested the resumption of charter flights between Moscow and
Tbilisi for the holiday period of December 26 to January 15 and the
resumption of regular flights starting from January 5.