MOSCOW PERSONALLY TARGETS SHEVARDNADZE AMIDST ONGOING GEORGIAN-RUSSIAN ROW
Sergei Blagov: 11/14/02

As the Chechen issue continues to stir up Georgian-Russian tension, some Russian politicians are personally targeting Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. Russia’s Audit Chamber has launched a formal probe of Shevardnadze’s conduct during his tenure as Soviet foreign minister.

Many Moscow policy makers have long accused Shevardnadze, who served as foreign minister from 1985-91, of not acting in the Soviet Union’s best interests. In particular, he has been accused of being overly generous in some dealings with the United States. Last October, 53 members of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament, urged the Audit Chamber to calculate "the country’s financial losses" incurred by a 1990 territorial-delimitation treaty, under which the Soviet Union ceded about 7,500 square kilometers of the Bering and Chukotka seas to the United States. In return, the Soviet Union received other areas of the Chukotka Sea. The US Congress ratified the agreement, but Moscow never approved the pact.

The treaty has had an adverse effect on Russia’s fishing industry, as the new US 200-mile exclusive economic zone has cut the Russian fleet off from rich fishing grounds. The Audit Chamber’s head, Sergei Stepashin, decided in early November to launch an official probe the propriety of the Bering Sea agreement, which Shevardnadze negotiated with then US Secretary of State James Baker. The probe is scheduled to run through December 20.

The Federation Council has estimated the loss to Russia’s fishing industry to be as much as $200 million per year since 1990. According to the RIA news agency, an Audit Chamber preliminary estimate says that over the past 12 years, the unfavorable terms of the deal may have deprived the Russian fishing fleet of as much as 2.4 million tons of fish, worth about $1.4 billion.

In addition to the Audit Chamber probe, former Chukotka Governor Alexander Nazarov has sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office asking that a criminal investigation be opened into whether Shevardnadze exceeded his powers by signing the deal. However, the Prosecutor General’s Office has so far refrained from opening a criminal probe into the matter.

Many Federation Council members want to revise the 1990 pact, alleging that the United States is not upholding its treaty obligations to allot compensation fishing quotas to Russia. The vocal criticism of the treaty may be little more than attempts by several lawmakers to raise their political profiles, some observers believe. Nevertheless, the personal attacks against Shevardnadze are noteworthy, given the mild-mannered nature of most Federation Council members. Some observers in Moscow believe that such an anti-Shevardnadze campaign would not have been launched in the Federation Council without at least the approval of Kremlin leaders.

Political analysts tend to see the Audit Chamber’s action against Shevardnadze as part of an overall Russian pressure campaign against Georgia. The two countries have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute over the presence of Chechens in Georgia. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archives] The Kremlin has repeatedly pressed Tbilisi to consent to joint military counter-terror operations on Georgian soil, including in the Pankisi Gorge. Georgian leaders have steadfastly resisted Moscow’s requests.

In September, tension escalated following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ultimatum, in which he indicated that Moscow might initiate unilateral military action on Georgian territory. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archives].

In addition, Tbilisi and Moscow have wrangled over the extradition of 13 alleged Chechen terrorists who were in Georgian custody. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archives]. In October, Georgia finally bowed to Russian pressure and extradited five suspected rebels. Subsequently, Moscow backpedaled on its September ultimatum. However, the European Court for Human Rights urged Georgia to suspend the extradition of Chechens until at least late November, saying such action could violate human rights norms. Georgian officials announced that they would comply with the court’s request, angering Russian officials.

In recent days, the extradition dispute has intensified. On November 12 Georgian prosecutors said two of the eight suspects are Georgian citizens and cannot be sent to Russia. That announcement sparked a sharp Russian reaction. Russia’s deputy prosecutor general, Sergei Fridinsky, told the official RTR television on November 13 that Georgia was "deliberately" slowing down the extradition process. The same day, General Konstantin Totsky, director of Russia’s Federal Border-Guard Service, demanded that Georgia take immediate action to control its border, and to prevent Chechen incursions into Russian territory.

"Tbilisi is yet to demonstrate sufficient political will so as to stabilize the situation in the Pankisi Gorge," Totsky told journalists in Moscow on November 14.

In the wake of the Moscow hostage crisis [for additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive], Georgian authorities have been keen to divert Moscow’s wrath over the Chechen issue. Officials from the two countries have attempted to improve relations, but their efforts at times have appeared counter-productive, some observers say.

A recent visit to Moscow by Georgian National Security Council secretary Tedo Japaridze was designed to ease tension, but ended up stirring controversy. On November 7, Japaridze announced that his planned meeting with Russia’s chief of the presidential administration, Alexander Voloshin, had been canceled without explanation. The cancellation was likely prompted by Russian displeasure over Georgia’s repeatedly expressed desire to join NATO. The day before the incident, Shevardnadze indicated that Georgia would likely apply for NATO membership at the military alliance’s upcoming summit in Prague.

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

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Posted November 14, 2002 © Eurasianet
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