Protest document over Russia’s illegal actions
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, March 21
Georgia’s chief parliamentary opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), has initiated the creation of a document which will describe Russia’s illegal actions on Georgia’s occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and will inform the international community in detail over recent steps of the occupant neighbor.
UNM MP Salome Samadashvili believes that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) government is not taking active steps to raise the issue of Georgia’s occupied territories at all international level meetings.
“We see that Russia is preparing a full military mobilization against Ukraine and Georgia in order to increase its offensive capabilities. These steps endanger the safety of the whole Black Sea region. The government has no effective response. They only ask international organizations to duly assess Russia’s steps,” Samadashvili stressed.
The MP called on the parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and society at large, to elaborate a joint address to the international community.
Several days ago, a video was released on the internet, which showed the transportation of Russian anti-aircraft missile systems in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region.
Russian missiles were taken to Abkhazia’s Gudauta region within the so-called military deal between Russia and de facto independent Abkhazia, ratified in November 2016.
The illegal agreement said that the main task of the combined force would be "adequate reaction to an armed assault (aggression)”. This joint group contained Russian troops deployed in occupied Abkhazia, two Abkhazian motorized infantry units, artillery and aviation groups as well as special forces units.
Also, on March 5, Russian-backed Abkhaz authorities reduced the number of so called crossing points between Georgia's main land and separatists controlled area.
Before this decision, three crossing-points along the occupation line were accessible: the Enguri Bridge, Nabakevi-Khurcha and Otobaia-Orsantia. Now, following the decision by the de-facto Abkhazian authorities, only the Enguri Bridge will remain open for locals to cross the occupation line.
Moreover, Russia has increased its steps towards Georgia’s other occupied region, South Ossetia.
