Russia's "creeping annexation" of Georgian territory is going unnoticed as the world's attention remains focused on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, Georgia's deputy foreign minister has said.
Long-running talks aimed at resolving "frozen conflicts" in the separatist Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia continue to Geneva, but David Dondua, who leads the Georgian delegation at the talks, said Moscow was on course to repeat its annexation of Crimea by fully absorbing the regions into its territory.
Russia has stationed thousands of troops and military hardware in Abkhazia and South Ossetia since the 2008 Russo-Georgian war. It has also signed what it refers to as treaties with the two entities – moves the Georgian government in Tbilisi sees as precursors to full integration.
“They are doing it more smoothly [than in Crimea], and that makes it more difficult for us to alert the international community and to introduce preventative measures,” Dondua said in an interview in Dublin.
“What happened in Crimea was broadcast live. But the international press is not interested if there is no shooting, killing, bombing. Thankfully there is no open war but there is no peace either.”
Locked in stalemate
Since coming to power in 2013, the government in Tbilisi under the Georgian Dream coalition has moved to improve relations with Moscow, allowing Russian-language media to broadcast in
Georgia
, overseeing an increase in trade between the two countries and opening informal channels of communication.
But on security the two states are locked in a stalemate. Georgia is seeking a Russian pledge not to use force and agreement on monitoring of a truce in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It also hopes to strike a deal for the return of more than 200,000 internally displaced persons, mostly ethnic Georgians, but progress on all these key issues has been halting.
Tbilisi is keen for European states to keep Georgia on the agenda in their dealings with Russia. “Russia is always testing how far it is allowed. Unless they realise that their actions in Ukraine and Georgia have a price tag, they will not stop. When they see the price tag, they will calculate that it’s worse to continue these illegal activities,” Dondua said.
More important for the Georgian government, however, is progress towards a closer relationship with the European Union, which it sees as a way of showing its citizens, and in particular inhabitants of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, that "there is another way to live besides Russia," as Dondua puts it. Georgia has spent the past four years harmonising its laws with EU law. Georgia already enjoys free trade with the EU, and this summer its citizens are expected to be granted the right of free travel as tourists in the EU.
"That will be another encouragement for people living on the other side of the occupation line that being with Georgia means being with Europe, " Dondua said.
Dondua was in Dublin to discuss lessons from the Northern Ireland peace process and Ireland's success as a location for foreign investment. Georgia hopes to emulate Ireland by selling itself as a bridge between Europe and Asia for overseas companies. On his visit Dondua met former minister for foreign affairs Eamon Gilmore and senior officials from the department.
Dondua declined to put a date on Georgia's access to the EU – recriminations over future membership for Turkey, Georgia's neighbour and main trading partner, complicate Tbilisi's position – but he said the long-term strategic decision to move closer to the EU and Nato is non-negotiable and has strong support among the country's people (polls show about 70 per cent of Georgians support closer ties with the EU).
"When the Soviet Union broke up, the only way out of that situation was towards Brussels. We started the journey in 1991, when we restored independence. I don't think any democratically elected government in Georgia would dare to deviate from this way.
Active contacts
“We Georgians are a European nation. Our mentality, our culture, our religion, our values. Our legislation is fully harmonised with the European Union. But legislation is not enough: we need more active contacts. We need people to go to Europe, to see how people live in Europe, to share their experience and bring best practices back home.”
As Georgia cultivates better ties with the west, its government is increasingly concerned about Russia’s “quite active and aggressive use of its soft power” in an effort to generate public support for Moscow, Dondua said.
Moscow is “pouring a lot of money into Georgia” to fund civil society groups which spread its message.
He said: “They cannot undermine, in Georgians’ eyes, the EU as an organisation, with its values and the benefits it offers its members, or Nato as a guarantor of security. But what they are targeting is a process of integration which is not going as fast as we want. Their message is: ‘yes, these organisations are good, but you will never become members because they don’t care about Georgia, they don’t care about your region’.”
