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Russia strikes back

— Photo: AP/RIA Novosti

Putin: “Moscow will not ‘ape’ the West.”

Three weeks after Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence, Russia has acted on its threat to retaliate the West’s partition of Serbia.

Moscow has lifted the economic sanctions against Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia in a move that has set Russia on a collision course with Europe. This is bound to have long-term consequences for the region.

The sanctions were imposed by the Commonwealth of Independent States, which unites most former Soviet republics, in 1996 in order to prod Abkhazia to re-admit Georgian refugees. Tens of thousands of ethnic Georgians had fled Abkhazia in the wake of a bitter armed conflict in the region, which ended in August 1993 with Abkhazia gaining de facto independence from the former Soviet republic.

Russia does not recognise either Abkhazia or the other Georgian breakaway territory, South Ossetia, though it has tacitly supported their autonomy by granting Russian passports to a majority of the local residents. Now that most Georgian refugees, some 55,000 of them, have returned to Abkhazia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the ban on trade and financial ties with Abkhazia “has lost all sense as it hampers social and economic programmes in the region and dooms the people of Abkhazia to unjustified suffering.”

Moscow denied that the re-opening of economic relations with Abkhazia was linked to the Kosovo issue. But President Vladimir Putin earlier said Russia “knows what it will do” in response to Kosovo’s Western-backed independence, even as he stated that Moscow would not “ape” the West.

Abkhazia on March 7 appealed to the United Nations, the European Union, and all countries of the world to recognise its self-proclaimed independence. However, Russia’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov gave assurances that the lifting of sanctions against Abkhazia would not alter Russia’s position in support Georgia’s territorial integrity.

Russia had vehemently opposed Kosovo’s independence against Serbia’s will, with Mr. Putin describing it as a “terrible precedent, which will de facto blow apart the whole system of international relations.”

The lifting of economic sanctions will firmly strap Abkhazia to Russia and bury Georgia’s hopes of reasserting its control over rebel territory. Russia’s relations with Abkhazia will be similar to the United States’ relations with Taiwan: full-fledged economic ties but no diplomatic recognition. Russian companies are now expected to invest heavily in Abkhazia, which used to be a popular Black Sea resort in the Soviet Union and is a major source of citrus fruit for Russia. Abkhazia is also keen to supply cement, pebbles and other building materials for the construction of sporting and other facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympics in neighbouring Sochi in Russia.

The European Union voiced concern over the Russian move. “There is a growing preoccupation and anxiety that Russia may be paving the way for recognition of Abkhazia,” EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner was quoted as saying on March 10.

The United States and Europe insist that Kosovo is a “unique case” and that the mode of handling it cannot set a precedent for other separatist movements. Russia has rubbished the claim and said that Kosovo would open a Pandora’s box of separatism and territorial conflicts across the world.

The lifting of sanctions against Abkhazia came ahead of an April 2-4 NATO summit in Bucharest where Georgia hopes to win a go-ahead to its integration in the Atlantic Alliance.

In a national referendum held in Georgia in January, over 70 per cent of Georgians voted for NATO membership for the country. Last week, President Michael Saakashvili and other Georgian leaders visited European capitals to drum up support for granting Georgia a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Bucharest summit.

Moscow has now issued a warning to NATO: if the alliance grants Georgia membership, Russia would make the next step and formally recognise Abkhazia, as well as South Ossetia. This is the message that the outgoing President, Mr. Putin, and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev conveyed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she visited Moscow over the weekend.

Speaking with Mr. Putin at a joint press conference after the talks, Ms. Merkel said NATO should be careful in accepting new members, especially in conflict-ridden Eastern Europe. “Countries that are entangled in regional and internal conflicts cannot become NATO members,” she said, in an obvious reference to Georgia.

Ms. Merkel was the first Western leader to visit Russia since Mr. Medvedev won Russia’s presidential election on March 2. Mr. Putin used the occasion to warn the West against counting on Russian foreign policy being less assertive under his successor.

“I don’t think it will be easier [with Mr. Medvedev],” Mr. Putin said. “This man is a true patriot, who will vigorously uphold the interests of his country on the international stage.”

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