NATO considers Russia as 'occupation force' and supports Georgia
Publication time: 28 May 2008, 20:18
NATO took Tbilisi's side in the scandal with downing of drone. Previously, Georgians were supported by the UN. Senior leadership of North Atlantic treaty calls Russian troops in Abkhazia "occupation forces" and promises to take Tbilisi into Alliance rapidly. UN, in turn, accuses Russia of violating the Moscow Agreement.

Earlier, British parliamentarian and vice-president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Bruce George at the Berlin meeting of Parliamentary Assembly had severely criticized Russia. His position is that Moscow was pushing for the destabilization in Georgia. And it poses a threat to the entire region.

The momentum for a diplomatic attack of Tbilisi on Moscow was became the conclusions of experts, who under the aegis of UN Observer Mission in Georgia studied the incident on 20 April in the skies over Abkhazia and considered that it was a Russian fighter shot down Georgian reconnaissance plane.

"Representatives of United Nations recently confirmed which the Russian side categorically unreasonable refutes", said, in particular, Bruce George. - Such actions cause destabilization of the political processes in Georgia and pose a significant threat to regional security, the so-called "peacekeepers", in this case, represent the occupation forces".

According to Vice-President of NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Russia purposefully trying to maintain "frozen conflicts", which gives the countries who oppose the integration of Georgia into NATO, the additional arguments in favor of what accept Tbilisi in the North Atlantic Alliance can not in any case.

In this regard, Bruce George expressed the hope that opponents of entry of Тбилиси into NATO - the Russian Federation and some members of the alliance - will be convinced that Georgia worthy a place among the participants in the treaty. Let us remind that the skepticism about this at the April summit of NATO in Bucharest did not hide the France, Germany and several other powers of "old" Europe.

To ensure the progress of candidates general secretary of NATO will personally visited Georgia in September and Ukraine in July. On that occasion, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that "it is important that both Ukraine and Georgia demonstrate democratic maturity and stay on the reform track".

"We are obviously keeping a particularly close eye on Georgia and its relations with Russia, and will continue to urge moderation and respect for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity", he said.

Meanwhile, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili believes that "the steps taken by Putin in the final days of his presidency are a declaration of the occupation of two parts of the territory of Georgia".

In his interview to Russian journalists Merabishvili commented on the incidents with the drones, talked about the future of Georgian-Russian relations, and about whether there will be war in Abkhazia.

We would like to remind that according to the Abkhaz side 7 Gerogians drones had been shot. Georgian authorities claimed that only two. Merabishvili believes that that the Abkhazians talks about them to raise people's spirits.

"After our first unpiloted aircraft was shot down by a Russian MiG, Russian authorities made the decision to show that it was shot down by Abkhazian air defense the next time. The Russians understood that they had made a big mistake when their aircraft openly shot down a Georgian plane over Georgian territory. But I am sure that the second aircraft was shot down by Russian air defense as well. All the other aircraft shot down were fictitious, to smooth over the effect of the first attack", Georgian minister told Kommersant newspaper.

Merabishvili said that Abkhazia has purchased an air defense system "Buk-1M". It is a ballistic missile complex with a medium radius of action. It covers 35 km. of airspace. Only 25 states in the world have air defense of that class. "That's what kind of Buk the Abkhazians "bought." It is located in Gali District now", the head of Georgian Interior Ministry says.

According to Merabishvili, Russia gives money and arms to Abkhazia. One Buk system costs a minimum of $ 150 million.

"No one can buy that weapon on the market. It is a very serious means of air defense. You remember when Ukrainian air defense shot down an Israeli plane? That was a Buk. They can shoot down everything at a height of 25 km. Our passenger planes fly at a height of 10 km., and military planes at 10-15 km. Abkhazia already has more weapons than Syria", Georgian Minister said and stressed that "Abkhazia isn't preparing for war, but the Russians are forcing it to prepare".

"If there is military action there, clearly that will not take Georgia in NATO. And the Russians know that very well. It would be impossible for the European countries that are NATO members to reach a consensus to take a state in which they are shooting into its ranks. Al the problems between Georgia and Russia began after Georgia's entry into NASTO became realistic. For Russia, that is a very serious problem. If Georgia becomes a NATO member, it will be a real channel to transport energy resources bypassing Russia. And I think military action in Abkhazia is part of Russia's plans to stop Georgia's entry into NATO. And it is a problem for us that Russia has such plans", the head of Georgian Interior Ministry believes.

According to him, six or eight years ago, the Kremlin wrote a plan for stopping Georgia from entering NATO.

"I know they planned the embargo of Georgian wines. And everything is going according to that plan. I know the person who organized it. It is Kholmogorov, who was a department head in the FSB. They thought it would destroy the Georgian economy. They thought there is a lot of Georgian wine in Russia. Kholmogorov told me in Vienna that they shut us out of more than billion in exports. When I answered that Georgian wine exports to Russia were only million, he was very surprised. They probably counted every distillery around their dachas in Balashikha [outside Moscow] that bottles Georgian and French wines", Vano Merabishvili said.

"But nothing terrible happened. Our economic growth totaled 12.5 percent. No other state that doesn't have oil has had that kind of growth. And we will develop, in spite of it all", he concluded.

Meanwhile, UN mission believes that the actions by Russian Federation in the zone of Georgian-Abkhaz conflict contravene the Moscow Agreement. This was said by US spokeswoman Michelle Montas.

The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia released the results of its own investigation regarding the downing of Georgian unmanned aerial vehicle over Abkhazia in April. Its specialists have concluded that the drone was shot down by Russian air forces.

"The frame of reference of the ceasefire and separation of forces regime in the case of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict is the Moscow Agreement. It provides for the CIS PKF and no one else to perform the separation of forces. From a strict peacekeeping perspective, therefore, the Mission considers that enforcement action by third-parties - in this case the Russian Federation - in the zone of conflict is fundamentally inconsistent with the Moscow Agreement", UN spokesperson said.

In turn the US believe that Russia has violated the territorial integrity of Georgia in the incident of downing of intelligence plane in April over Abkhazia, said Deputy Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff, replying to journalists.

Kavkaz Center

http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2008/05/28/9680.shtml