Georgia navy will open fire on trespassing vessels - military
There is a pipeline involved in this.
The Abkhaz strategy is presumably predicated on the assumption that Moscow will continue to uphold the status quo. Up to 70 percent of the Abkhaz have availed themselves of the offer of Russian passports, and the Russian State Duma repeatedly stresses Russia's obligation to protect Russian citizens in other CIS states. But the Russian government may prove less altruistic. Georgian commentators have raised the possibility that Moscow and Tbilisi may have cut a deal under which Moscow would support a formal settlement of the conflict and the repatriation of Georgian displaced persons in exchange for privileges for Russian businessmen wishing to invest in Abkhazia and the construction of an oil-export pipeline from Novorossiisk (on Russia's Black Sea coast) that would link up with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline currently under construction, according to the daily "Rezonansi" on 27 May. Such a pipeline would provide an alternative export route for Russian oil that avoids the Turkish straits bottleneck. Abkhaz hopes that Russia may at some point recognize Abkhazia as an independent state seem utopian insofar as such recognition would strengthen the Chechens' legal claim to independence. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/06/9581ba62-b615-4a87-a792-22601a7e9c2d.html
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Georgia navy will open fire on trespassing vessels - military
04.08.2004 11:23:00 GMT Poti. (Interfax) - The Georgian navy is ready to obey President Mikheil Saakashvili's order aimed at preventing any vessels, apart from ships on humanitarian missions that have permission from Georgia's authorities, from entering territorial waters near the self- proclaimed republic of Abkhazia, Koba Bochorishvili, commander of the Poti marine division of the Georgian coast guard service, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"We did receive the president's order that vessels that have violated the border should be stopped in territorial waters near the Abkhaz coasts and that fire should be opened on them if they disobey orders," Bochorishvili said. This warning also applies to passenger boats that could travel from Sochi to Sukhumi, he said.
"Fire should be opened on all vessels that enter the Sukhumi port without the Georgian authorities' agreement. They should be sunk," the Georgian president said at a news conference on Tuesday.
"We will do everything in our power to stop such vessels," he said. "No fire will be opened on people. But there are plenty of ways to disable a trespassing vessel," he said.
The decision to ban ships from entering the closed area near the Abkhaz coasts does not violate agreements on settling the conflict in Abkhazia, Bochorishvili said.
"We have all the modern capabilities, including radar, to detect trespassing vessels. That is why we do not advise anybody to stage blatant provocative acts by entering the territorial waters of another state," he said.
The Georgian navy currently has 40 warships, including missile- carrying vessels. The fleet has been conducting patrol missions along Georgia's sea borders in recent months.
MOSCOW, August 4 (Itar-Tass) - Any attempts to inflict damage or infringe the lives of Russian citizens “will be adequately rebuffed,” the Russian Foreign Minister said in a statement on Wednesday in connection with Georgia’s threats to open fire at all ships that would appear near the Abkhazian shores.
“The official Tbilisi has made an unprecedented step,” the ministry stated.
“This warning is addressed also to Russian tourists who make excursion trips by sea from Sochi to Novy Afon and Sukhumi.”
The U.S. granting asylum to an exiled Chechen leader considered a terrorist by the Russian government and boosting military cooperation with Georgia could guarantee even higher oil prices or Putin may consider keeping them at approximately the present level instead of letting the price slowly sink. BIG SORE SPOT WITH RUSSIA. #msg-3716000
This seems a ludicrous move especially right before our election unless Bush has something ‘wonderful’ planned for Chavez.
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U.S. Asylum for Chechen Draws Protest From Russia
The separatist republic's exiled foreign minister is wanted on terrorism charges. The issue could damage the countries' relationship, experts say. By Maura Reynolds Times Staff Writer
August 6, 2004
WASHINGTON — The Russian government will protest a U.S. decision to grant asylum to an exiled Chechen leader considered a terrorist by the Russian government, an embassy source said Thursday.
Ilyas Akhmadov, the foreign minister of the exiled leadership of the separatist Russian republic, received asylum Monday after the Department of Homeland Security lifted an appeal filed this year, Akhmadov said in an interview.
"I am very happy this is over and I want to stay here and do what I can to work towards a political resolution to the conflict in Chechnya," Akhmadov said.
Russia issued an international arrest warrant for Akhmadov on terrorism charges in September 2003, and the Russian government objected when Akhmadov applied for political asylum in the United States, accusing him of associating with international terrorists, including Osama bin Laden.
The Russian Embassy source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Russians would demand more information and that U.S. asylum for Akhmadov could damage the cooperation between the two countries.
"We are very much disturbed and concerned about the situation," the embassy source said. "We are trying to get more data on what happened."
Asylum would "contradict the existing spirit of our relationship and partnership on counter-terrorism in particular," the embassy source said.
A Boston immigration court granted Akhmadov's asylum application last spring, but the Department of Homeland Security appealed the decision on June 1. It withdrew the appeal on July 13, and the grant of asylum decision became final on Monday, Akhmadov said in a telephone interview from his home in Vermont.
Chechnya is a complicated issue in relations between the United States and Russia.
On one hand, Russia is a declared ally in the "war on terror," and U.S. officials believe there have been some ties between Chechen rebels and Al Qaeda.
The United States has placed Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev on its official list of international terrorists; the Chechen government-in-exile has at times been supportive of Basayev.
On the other hand, the United States supports a peaceful settlement to the conflict and has expressed concerns about abuses committed by Russian soldiers in the occupied republic.
An exiled Chechen leader was assassinated in Qatar this year; authorities there have convicted two Russian intelligence agents in the murder.
"The issue of Chechnya is very sensitive for the Russians so anything involving Chechnya is very difficult for U.S. and Russian officials to deal with," said Fiona Hill, an expert on Chechnya at the Brookings Institution. "This could be a flash point."
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department said that officials filed the asylum appeal in June "out of an abundance of caution."
But he said the department eventually concluded that the evidence purporting links between Akhmadov and known terrorists was inconclusive.
"After about two months of review and briefings and discussion among attorneys within the national security law division and other colleagues in the government, we were in a position to know better the facts in this specific case and be confident in the decision to lift the appeal," Knocke said.
The decision was hailed by the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, a group which championed Akhmadov's asylum case.
The group said Akhmadov had been granted a fellowship by the National Endowment for Democracy to press for a peace process in Chechnya.
"The grant of asylum and the award of the NED fellowship should be helpful in the peaceful settlement of the tragic Russian violence against Chechnya," committee chairman and former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski said in a statement.
Akhmadov was reappointed this month to the foreign minister-in-exile position by Aslan Maskhadov, the rebel leader who was president of Chechnya's self-declared independent government and one of the chief proponents of a negotiated resolution to Chechnya's conflict with Russia. Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya in an internationally recognized election in 1997.
In 1999, Russia sent troops into the rebel republic after apartment bombings attributed to Chechens killed hundreds in Moscow and other Russian cities, eventually forcing the Chechen leadership into exile.
Though Akhmadov has repeatedly spoken out against terrorism, especially since filing his asylum application in the U.S., Maskhadov in recent months has adopted a much more militant tone.
He claimed direct responsibility this month for a bloody rebel raid in Ingushetia, the republic that borders on Chechnya, that killed almost 90 people in June.
Maskhadov, who had always been careful to distance himself from major terrorist attacks, also vowed to kill whoever wins the Kremlin-engineered presidential elections scheduled in the republic later this month.
In an interview videotaped for Chechen Television, a transcript of which was distributed on the Kavkaz Center website, Maskhadov vowed there would be "massive operations" in Ingushetia and "an expansion of the theater of operations."
The website also displayed video footage of Maskhadov standing next to Basayev, who had taken responsibility for terrorist attacks on civilians in Russia, including the 2002 seizure of the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow that ended in the deaths of dozens of hostage-takers and captives.
Times staff writer Kim Murphy in Moscow contributed to this report.
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