Abkhazia Shows Good Maneuvers
// Exercises
Yesterday in Abkhazia, the unrecognized republic's military began the largest exercises in recent years, involving aircraft, tanks, and warships. Official Tbilisi has already accused Russian military instructors of preparing the maneuvers. The exercises could cause a worsening of relations between Russia and Georgia, which may culminate in Friday's Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova (GUAM) summit in Chisinau – it will start the day after the maneuvers end.
The command staff exercises currently taking place in the unrecognized republic are unprecedented in their scale. According to Abkhazia's Ministry of Defense, 1500 professional soldiers and another 2500 reservists are taking part in the exercises. In addition, Su-27 warplanes, dozens of tanks, artillery mounts, and warships have been deployed in the exercises taking place in Ochamchire, Gulripshi, and Sukhumi districts.
As an employee of Abkhazia's Ministry of Defense, who refused to give his name, told the Kommersant correspondent, the exercises are being held “on the instructions of the country's senior political leaders, and preparations began eight months ago.” Nevertheless, it is highly significant that they coincided with the worsening of Russian-Georgian relations.
Throughout most of last week, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili made extremely harsh statements directed at Russia. In particular, as Kommersant wrote yesterday, he promised to “snatch Abkhazia from the claws of the empire.” What is more, yesterday, negotiations between Russia and Georgia on the future of the military bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki finally collapsed completely.
In this explosive situation, the start of the exercises in Abkhazia could provoke Georgia into a quick reconsideration of its relations with Russia. Yesterday, officials in Tbilisi were already starting to hurl accusations at Moscow. “We are watching these exercises and each step by the Abkhazian side very closely, because this is an opportunity for us to see Sukhumi's real intentions,” said Georgi Khaindrava, Georgia's minister of state for conflict resolution. “We find it hard to imagine how one can reconcile the peacekeeping process with the continuous arms race in Abkhazia, which holds exercises so regularly.” The Georgian minister added that “there are Russian military instructors in Abkhazia, who are training Abkhazian professionals, especially pilots.”
Kommersant indirectly confirmed this fact in Abkhazia's Ministry of Defense. Kommersant's informant said that foreign instructors were actually training pilots.” He did not say which country the instructors were from, but he stressed that they were not professional military personnel in their countries' armies.
Temur Mzhavia, the chairman of Abkhazia's Supreme Soviet in exile, who lives in Tbilisi, told Kommersant that holding exercises in the conflict zone is contrary to all previously achieved agreements. At Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they told Kommersant that the question of the legality of holding maneuvers in a zone controlled by Russian peacekeepers is being studied; the Georgian side is very interested to know why the peacekeepers are not reacting to these exercises.
Meanwhile, at Abkhazia's Ministry of Defense, they assured Kommersant that the exercises were taking place outside both the conflict zone and the restricted weapons zone. According to Kommersant's informant, even if the maneuvers somehow touch on Gali District, located in the conflict zone, it will only be that part outside the security zone and restricted weapons zone controlled by Russian peacekeepers.
As the exercises continue, the responses from Tbilisi will obviously come with increasing frequency and they will be increasingly shrill. The maneuvers will continue until April 21; and on the next day, the Georgian leader will be able to state his position on what is happening in Abkhazia to anyone who will listen at the GUAM summit in Chisinau, which starts on April 22. It is not inconceivable that the plans of the leaders of three unrecognized republics (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Pridnestrovye), who will be holding a meeting in Sukhumi on the same day, will be additional irritants for Tbilisi.
It is still unclear what move President Saakhashvili may try to make at the summit in Chisinau in response to the exercises going on in Abkhazia. Last Friday, he hinted at only one point of his future plans – to declare in Chisinau the name of the country where the next revolution would occur. It is notable that the Georgian parliament's press service announced yesterday that the deputies were preparing to approve an address to the people of Belarus, which speaks of the “inadmissibility of the persecution of opposition parties and restrictions on the press,” as well as “recent events in Belarus are being evaluated.”
Vladimir Novikov, Tbilisi; Mikail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 19, 2005
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