Eurasia Insight:
MILITARY ISSUES BLOCK RUSSIA-GEORGIA DETENTE
Sergei Blagov: 1/06/03

After a tumultuous 2002, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has taken tentative steps to lower tensions with his country’s largest neighbor, Russia. But while Russian President Vladimir Putin has reciprocated Shevardnadze’s gestures, a number of sensitive issues still complicate efforts to build bilateral trust.

Throughout 2002, Russia accused Georgia of harboring terrorists answerable for crimes in Russia’s war with Chechnya, and Georgia claimed that Russia violated its sovereignty under the guise of antiterrorist operations. [For background information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. On December 6, though, Georgia extradited alleged terrorist Yusuf Krymshamkhalov to Russia, which had accused him of complicity in terrorist attacks in Russian cities in September 1999. On December 28, Russia extradited two Georgian citizens, Vepkhiya Durglishvili and Soso Toriya, who have been suspected of involvement in a February 1998 assassination attempt against Shevardnadze. Two days later, Shevardnadze announced on national radio that he was normalizing relations with Russia under a gradual détente.

Despite Shevardnadze’s statement, Moscow remains unhappy over Tbilisi’s failure to hand over all suspected Chechen rebels. The day Shevardnadze proclaimed détente, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Yakovenko insisted on immediate extradition of all detained militants from Georgia. Earlier in December, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of a Moscow think tank called Politika, as telling a roundtable audience that Russian businesses view Georgia as a "closed market…of marginal strategic" importance for Russia. Nikonov credited American military advisors for Georgia’s apparent success in restoring order to the Pankisi Gorge in summer 2002 and described Georgia as a "failed state, unable to control its own territory, with unclear foreign policy."

Amid rhetoric like this, Moscow still puts some direct pressure on Tbilisi. Russia’s Federal Border-Guard Service warned on December 17 that some 40 fighters of the Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev were preparing to infiltrate the Ingushetia region from Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge. Beyond this rhetoric, Russia refuses to engage in full military collaboration with Georgia. Joint maneuvers of Russian, Georgian and Azerbaijani border guards, originally due in December, were put off until February or March. The maneuvers are to be held in Kaspiisk, in Russia’s southern Dagestan region. The delay comes amid simmering tension over Georgia’s refusal to extradite 13 alleged Chechen rebels who border guards detained in August.

Shevardnadze’s talk about détente may be aimed at easing a more subtle form of pressure on Goergia. Moscow harbors several prominent Georgian exiles, who are scathing in their criticism of Shevardnadze. Georgia has been hit by a series of recent violent abductions involving foreigners or people with wealthy relatives abroad, including in Russia. Some of the most outspoken claims about these episodes have come from the Georgian exiles in Russia. On December 26, for example, former Georgian defense minister Tengiz Kitovani told journalists in Moscow that 700 Chechen militants spent the winter in the Pankisi Gorge. Earlier, he had claimed that Shevardnadze was behind the 2002 contract killing of Kakhi Asatiani, a businessman and former soccer star.

Talk about a rapprochement has failed to clarify the future of Russian military bases in Georgia. Russian military and foreign ministry experts traveled to Tbilisi from December 10 to 13 to discuss the withdrawal of Russian forces from bases in Georgia proper and Abkhazia. Yet the two sides remain far apart, with Russia seeking 11 years to withdraw from the bases in Batumi and Akhalkalakhi and Georgia insisting on full withdrawal by 2007.

On December 13, Georgia deepened the rancor over this issue when Foreign Ministry spokesman Kakha Sikharulidze told reporters that the government might charge Russia $700 million for the bases if the two sides cannot agree on the timeframe for withdrawal in the first half of 2003. This figure follows a December 5 vote in the Georgian parliament, at which deputies agreed that Russia owed land and property taxes dating from December 21, 1991 on the bases. According to Georgian calculations, the total amount due is $704 million. On December 24, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov stated that Russia had no immediate plans to shut down its military bases in Georgia. Ivanov also described on-going negotiations with Georgia as "fruitless," according to RIA.

Shevardnadze, amid these mixed signals, is trying to remain adaptable. On December 16, he backed the parliament’s decision to tax Russian military bases, but he indicated that Georgia’s negotiating position could be flexible. In a rare concession, Russia agreed to pay salaries to its military personnel in Georgia in Georgian currency from January 1, 2003. But further concessions will probably be less forthcoming. Transferring Russian troops from Georgia to Armenia would probably aggravate Russian relations with Azerbaijan, which signed a military cooperation accord with Georgia on December 16.

Even if Shevardnadze can forge agreement on the basing question, Russia and Georgia remain somewhat divided over the fate of Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. On December 12, Valery Loschinin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister and President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy on Abkhazia, met newly-appointed Abkhaz Prime Minister Gennady Gagulia in Moscow. According to RIA, the officials pledged to do more for resolving differences between Abkhazia and Georgia. Loschinin has lambasted Georgia’s "inefficient cooperation" in combat against terrorism and accused it of blocking an accord with his region. Georgia has tried to block a rail link to Abkhazia, to the point of threatening to block access to Russian bases unless Russia agreed not to use the rail link.

The two countries exchanged sharp words over Russia’s December re-opening of the rail link. On December 27, Georgian Minister of Transport and Communication Merab Adeishvili described it as a "blatant violation of international norms and bilateral agreements." Three days later, the Russian Foreign Ministry voiced concern over Tbilisi’s "insistence on draconian measures to isolate Abkhazia" and protested that the rail link’s opening was intended to serve as a move to encourage dialogue.

Editor’s Note: Sergei Blagov is a Moscow-based specialist in CIS political affairs.