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Will Georgia Reenter the CIS?
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 10 Issue: 22
February 6, 2013 06:10 PM Age: 4 days
By: Giorgi Menabde
Georgian prime minister's envoy to Russia, Zurab Abashidze (Source:
Civil Georgia)
The issue of Georgia's possible return to the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) and its participation in other post-Soviet
space organizations became topical after the January 29 statement of
the head of the CIS Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry,
Mikhail Yevdokimov, about `contacts' with Ivanishvili's government
about this matter
(http://medianews.ge/en/russiasaysnegotiationsongeorgiareturntocisunderway/30160).
Yevdokimov did not mention the term `talks' or even `consultations.'
By `contacts,' the Russian official may have meant that hints about
Georgia's reentry were dropped during recent meetings of the Russian
and Georgian diplomats at different levels. Notably, the special
representative of the Georgian prime minister for negotiations with
Russia, Zurab Abashidze, met with Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs Grigory Karasin on December 14 in Switzerland
(http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25550).
Almost immediately after Yevdokimov's statement was published,
Abashidze repudiated the allegations, saying that his `contact' with
Grigory Karasin did not entail any talks about Georgia's membership in
the CIS. `The Commonwealth of Independent States was not mentioned
during our talks even once,' the prime minister's envoy emphasized
(The Messenger, January 31).
President Mikheil Saakashvili's party, the United National Movement
(UNM), accused Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili of altering the
foreign policy course of the country, causing it to fall into the
`Russian influence zone.' `If the government is really discussing the
issue of accession to the CIS, it is treason. If Yevdokimov had lied,
why has the Georgian foreign ministry not sent a note of protest to
Moscow?' one of the leaders of the UNM, Georgy Gabashvili remarked
(http://www.kommersant.ru/pda/kommersant.html?id=2116522).
Georgia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Maia Panjikidze hastened to
deny all allegations, saying that Ivanishvili's government did not
even consider the question of joining post-Soviet organizations. `If
we become members of any international union, it will only be NATO
[North Atlantic Treaty Organization] or the EU [European Union],' the
minister asserted (http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25693). The
chairman of the parliamentary committee for international affairs,
Tedo Japaridze - who had just recently been nominated to the position of
ambassador to the United Kingdom - called the statement by Mikhail
Yevdokimov `absurd,' using rather non-diplomatic languare. Japardize
said there were many `Yevdokimovs out there, and it was better not to
pay any attention to them'
(http://www.newsru.com/world/31jan2013/evdokimov.html).
It is not difficult to understand the motivation for such a swift and
emotional backlash by the ruling Georgian Dream coalition against
allegations about joining the CIS. The governing party members wanted
to deny President Saakashvili and his allies the ability to accuse
Prime Minister Ivanishvili of deviating from the course toward joining
NATO and of `filling the Kremlin's orders.' However, many Georgian
politicians already suspect Ivanishvili of pursuing a
behind-the-scenes agreement with the Kremlin.
`Georgian Dream is a Russian landing party in our country,' the leader
of the People's Front, Nodar Natadze, told Jamestown. Meanwhile, not
trusting Ivanishvili's government, one of the closest associates of
President Saakashvili, Georgy Baramidze, demanded the adoption of a
special law that would codify Georgia's pro-Western foreign policy
orientation (http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25695). `The law
will prevent any authorities in power from joining the CIS, Eurasian
Union or the [Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan] Customs Union, as well as
other organizations that were created under the auspices of the
occupier country [Russia],' Baramidze said. President Saakashvili
advanced even further, proposing changes to the constitution. `In the
primary law it should be written that Georgia will not reject the
course for Euro-Atlantic integration,' the head of state declared
(http://news.am/rus/news/138322.html). Yet, the leader of the
parliamentary majority, David Saganelidze, rejected these proposals.
`We are not in a position to burn all bridges,' he pointedly stated,
confirming suspicions that despite all denials, the issue about
Georgia's participation in post-Soviet integrationist projects has not
been entirely removed from the political agenda.
Georgian authorities are particularly reluctant to make any decisive
statements about Russia at this point in time. Ivanishvili's
government is starting difficult talks with Gennady Onishchenko, the
head of the Russian government agency for consumer products oversight,
about the return of Georgian exports, such as wines, mineral water and
agricultural goods, to the Russian market. Moscow had unofficially
embargoed all Georgian produce since 2006, following the rise of
tensions between Russia and Georgia over the status of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia (http://en.rian.ru/world/20120403/172590686.html).
Experts do not exclude that the statements by the CIS department of
the Russian foreign affairs ministry was a diplomatic hint at the
conditions under which Moscow will allow Georgian exports. `Maybe
there have been no contacts yet, but Russia apparently proposes a
barter exchange - Georgia's return to the CIS in return for a resumption
of imports [from Georgia],' independent expert David Avalishvili told
Jamestown.
Experts and politicians have few doubts that if Georgia rejoins the
CIS, which the country left immediately after the August 2008 war over
South Ossetia, it will be only the first step toward membership in the
Customs Union and then in the Eurasian Union championed by President
Vladimir Putin.
Georgian society equates the CIS with several dramatic developments
for Georgia in its recent past. President Eduard Shevardnadze led
Georgia to become a member of this organization at the beginning of
October 1993 (Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2004, Taylor &
Francis Group, 2003) after a heavy defeat in the war with Abkhazia and
losses in the civil war with `zviadists,' followers of the first
president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who declared independence of
the country from the Soviet Union. All these past years, up to the
Russia-Georgia war in 2008, Georgian elites had hoped to reclaim
Abkhazia and South Ossetia through their loyalty to Moscow and
participation in integrationist projects. However, geopolitical
realities quickly shifted after the end of Boris Yeltsin's era in
Russia, its victory over Chechen separatism and the gradual increase
of Moscow's influence in the South Caucasus. As such, an overt return
to the CIS will likely prove politically unpalatable for many in
Georgia.
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=40424&tx_ttnews[backPid]=620
From: A. Papazian
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 10 Issue: 22
February 6, 2013 06:10 PM Age: 4 days
By: Giorgi Menabde
Georgian prime minister's envoy to Russia, Zurab Abashidze (Source:
Civil Georgia)
The issue of Georgia's possible return to the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) and its participation in other post-Soviet
space organizations became topical after the January 29 statement of
the head of the CIS Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry,
Mikhail Yevdokimov, about `contacts' with Ivanishvili's government
about this matter
(http://medianews.ge/en/russiasaysnegotiationsongeorgiareturntocisunderway/30160).
Yevdokimov did not mention the term `talks' or even `consultations.'
By `contacts,' the Russian official may have meant that hints about
Georgia's reentry were dropped during recent meetings of the Russian
and Georgian diplomats at different levels. Notably, the special
representative of the Georgian prime minister for negotiations with
Russia, Zurab Abashidze, met with Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs Grigory Karasin on December 14 in Switzerland
(http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25550).
Almost immediately after Yevdokimov's statement was published,
Abashidze repudiated the allegations, saying that his `contact' with
Grigory Karasin did not entail any talks about Georgia's membership in
the CIS. `The Commonwealth of Independent States was not mentioned
during our talks even once,' the prime minister's envoy emphasized
(The Messenger, January 31).
President Mikheil Saakashvili's party, the United National Movement
(UNM), accused Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili of altering the
foreign policy course of the country, causing it to fall into the
`Russian influence zone.' `If the government is really discussing the
issue of accession to the CIS, it is treason. If Yevdokimov had lied,
why has the Georgian foreign ministry not sent a note of protest to
Moscow?' one of the leaders of the UNM, Georgy Gabashvili remarked
(http://www.kommersant.ru/pda/kommersant.html?id=2116522).
Georgia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Maia Panjikidze hastened to
deny all allegations, saying that Ivanishvili's government did not
even consider the question of joining post-Soviet organizations. `If
we become members of any international union, it will only be NATO
[North Atlantic Treaty Organization] or the EU [European Union],' the
minister asserted (http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25693). The
chairman of the parliamentary committee for international affairs,
Tedo Japaridze - who had just recently been nominated to the position of
ambassador to the United Kingdom - called the statement by Mikhail
Yevdokimov `absurd,' using rather non-diplomatic languare. Japardize
said there were many `Yevdokimovs out there, and it was better not to
pay any attention to them'
(http://www.newsru.com/world/31jan2013/evdokimov.html).
It is not difficult to understand the motivation for such a swift and
emotional backlash by the ruling Georgian Dream coalition against
allegations about joining the CIS. The governing party members wanted
to deny President Saakashvili and his allies the ability to accuse
Prime Minister Ivanishvili of deviating from the course toward joining
NATO and of `filling the Kremlin's orders.' However, many Georgian
politicians already suspect Ivanishvili of pursuing a
behind-the-scenes agreement with the Kremlin.
`Georgian Dream is a Russian landing party in our country,' the leader
of the People's Front, Nodar Natadze, told Jamestown. Meanwhile, not
trusting Ivanishvili's government, one of the closest associates of
President Saakashvili, Georgy Baramidze, demanded the adoption of a
special law that would codify Georgia's pro-Western foreign policy
orientation (http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25695). `The law
will prevent any authorities in power from joining the CIS, Eurasian
Union or the [Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan] Customs Union, as well as
other organizations that were created under the auspices of the
occupier country [Russia],' Baramidze said. President Saakashvili
advanced even further, proposing changes to the constitution. `In the
primary law it should be written that Georgia will not reject the
course for Euro-Atlantic integration,' the head of state declared
(http://news.am/rus/news/138322.html). Yet, the leader of the
parliamentary majority, David Saganelidze, rejected these proposals.
`We are not in a position to burn all bridges,' he pointedly stated,
confirming suspicions that despite all denials, the issue about
Georgia's participation in post-Soviet integrationist projects has not
been entirely removed from the political agenda.
Georgian authorities are particularly reluctant to make any decisive
statements about Russia at this point in time. Ivanishvili's
government is starting difficult talks with Gennady Onishchenko, the
head of the Russian government agency for consumer products oversight,
about the return of Georgian exports, such as wines, mineral water and
agricultural goods, to the Russian market. Moscow had unofficially
embargoed all Georgian produce since 2006, following the rise of
tensions between Russia and Georgia over the status of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia (http://en.rian.ru/world/20120403/172590686.html).
Experts do not exclude that the statements by the CIS department of
the Russian foreign affairs ministry was a diplomatic hint at the
conditions under which Moscow will allow Georgian exports. `Maybe
there have been no contacts yet, but Russia apparently proposes a
barter exchange - Georgia's return to the CIS in return for a resumption
of imports [from Georgia],' independent expert David Avalishvili told
Jamestown.
Experts and politicians have few doubts that if Georgia rejoins the
CIS, which the country left immediately after the August 2008 war over
South Ossetia, it will be only the first step toward membership in the
Customs Union and then in the Eurasian Union championed by President
Vladimir Putin.
Georgian society equates the CIS with several dramatic developments
for Georgia in its recent past. President Eduard Shevardnadze led
Georgia to become a member of this organization at the beginning of
October 1993 (Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2004, Taylor &
Francis Group, 2003) after a heavy defeat in the war with Abkhazia and
losses in the civil war with `zviadists,' followers of the first
president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who declared independence of
the country from the Soviet Union. All these past years, up to the
Russia-Georgia war in 2008, Georgian elites had hoped to reclaim
Abkhazia and South Ossetia through their loyalty to Moscow and
participation in integrationist projects. However, geopolitical
realities quickly shifted after the end of Boris Yeltsin's era in
Russia, its victory over Chechen separatism and the gradual increase
of Moscow's influence in the South Caucasus. As such, an overt return
to the CIS will likely prove politically unpalatable for many in
Georgia.
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=40424&tx_ttnews[backPid]=620
From: A. Papazian