Archivo etiqueta «Georgia»
Europe Report N°179 (CRISIS GROUP, 18/01/07):
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Fourteen years of negotiation, led alternately by the UN and Russia, have done little to resolve the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. There have been some successes on the ground: ceasefire violations are rare, approximately 45,000 internally displaced (IDP) Georgians have returned to homes in the Gali region, the two sides cooperate on operating the Inguri power plant, and a strategic railway through Abkhazia may restart. But the sharp deterioration in Russian-Georgian relations and a Georgian military adventure in the Kodori valley have contributed to a freeze in diplomacy over Abkhazia since mid-2006. In the … Seguir leyendo
By Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, writes a monthly column for The Post (THE WASHINGTON POST, 30/11/06):
While the United States is otherwise preoccupied, this small former Soviet republic has become the stage for a blatant effort at regime change, Russian-style. Vladimir Putin is going all out to undermine and get rid of Georgia’s young, pro-American, pro-democracy president, Mikheil Saakashvili. Putin is assuming that the United States, overwhelmed by Iraq and needing Moscow’s support on North Korea and Iran, will not make Georgia a “red-line” issue and that the European Union, fearful of endangering … Seguir leyendo
By Masha Lipman, editor of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Pro et Contra journal, writes a monthly column for The Post (THE WASHINGTON POST, 21/10/06):
A Georgian migrant worker died at a Moscow airport this week while awaiting deportation. Tengiz Togonidze, 48, had asthma and was gasping for breath, but he was reportedly denied permission to get some fresh air either during the five days he was held in a detention center or afterward, during the trip to the airport, which took many hours. He was one of some 700 ethnic Georgians deported over the past three weeks as the … Seguir leyendo
By Edward Lucas, Central and Eastern Europe corrrespondant for The Economist (THE TIMES, 13/10/06):
“A FARAWAY COUNTRY of which we know nothing.” Neville Chamberlain may have been unfair to Czechoslovakia when he dismissed it so casually in 1938. But it is all too true of the countries on the fringe of Europe that now find themselves the front lines in the new cold war: Georgia and Moldova.
Not for them the stag parties that now infest the old centres of Prague and Riga; not for them the eager amateur property speculators who are buying up derelict cottages in Bulgaria … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 03/10/06):
Tension between Russia and Georgia has been building for months and will not be defused even if the latest clash over alleged Russian spying is resolved. Territorial, ethnic and religious disputes, local politics, ideology and history are all contributing factors. But the broader context is a continuing post-cold war struggle for influence between Moscow and Washington in the strategic trans-Caucasus region.Since winning power after the western-backed 2003 “rose revolution”, President Mikhail Saakashvili has moved to integrate Georgia into Nato and the European Union. The US has been especially supportive, with President George Bush visiting … Seguir leyendo
Europe Report N°176 (CRISIS GROUP, 15/09/06):
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Conflict over Abkhazia, squeezed between the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains, has festered since the 1992-1993 fighting. Internationally recognised as part of Georgia and largely destroyed, with half the pre-war population forcibly displaced, Abkhazia is establishing the institutions of an independent state. In twelve years since the ceasefire, the sides have come no closer to a settlement despite ongoing UN-mediated negotiations.
Tensions rose in July 2006 when a forceful Georgian police operation cleaned a renegade militia out of upper Kodori Gorge, the one part of pre-war Abkhazia not controlled by the … Seguir leyendo
By Ana Palacio and Daniel Twining, the former foreign minister of Spain and an Oxford-based consultant to the German Marshall Fund of the United States, respectively. (THE WASHINGTON POST, 11/03/06):
Since 2003, democratic revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia have dealt strategic blows to the ambition of Russia’s leaders to reconstitute the former Soviet empire by retaining political and military suzerainty over their weaker neighbors. But Russia’s imperial pretensions along its periphery linger.
Calls from the elected presidents of Georgia and Ukraine for a united Europe stretching “from the Atlantic to the Caspian” should embolden Europe and the United States … Seguir leyendo
Europe Briefing N°38 (CRISIS GROUP, 19/04/05):
OVERVIEW
President Mikheil Saakashvili’s announcement of a peace initiative in January 2005 was a positive step towards the peaceful resolution of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.[1] The measures proposed go in the right direction and match many Crisis Group recommendations[2] but little has actually been done. Without immediate and visible steps to back up President Saakashvili’s words — beginning by seriously addressing the refugee and displaced persons issue in order to build some mutual confidence before plunging directly into status questions — there is a real danger that Georgia and South Ossetia could blunder into … Seguir leyendo
Europe Report N°159 (CRISIS GROUP, 26/11/04):
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A precarious peace is back in place between Georgia and South Ossetia after the long-frozen conflict nearly became a hot war again and drew in Russia when dozens were killed in August 2004 fighting. President Saakashvili tried to break a twelve-year deadlock and take another step to restore Georgia’s territorial integrity by undermining the regime in Tskhinvali, but seriously miscalculated. A more comprehensive approach is needed to resolve this conflict peacefully. The onus is on Georgia, with help from its international partners, to increase the security and confidence of people living in … Seguir leyendo
La difícil vecindad entre Rusia y Georgia. Félix Stanevsky fue embajador de Rusia en Georgia (LA NACION, 06/01/04).
Europe Report N°151(CRISIS GROUP, 03/12/03):
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Georgia’s political crisis, which climaxed in the forced resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze on 23 November 2003, is not over yet and could still lead to violence and the country’s disintegration. Georgia, in other words, is still pre-conflict, not post-conflict, and exceptional international action is required to contain the potential for chaos. Washington, which quietly supported what U.S. media called the “Rose Revolution”, has promised aid for organisation of the presidential election on 4 January 2004, as has the European Union; other donors should follow suit, and the international community should maintain this … Seguir leyendo