U.S. Calls for International Monitoring of Russo-Georgian Border

At a hearing of the Future of Democracy in Black Sea Area during a session of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the necessity of restoring the international border operation mission at Russo-Georgian border was also discussed.

John Tefft, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said that the United States is urging Russia ?to stop obstructing? the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMP) at the Chechen, Ingush and Daghestani sections of the Russo-Georgian border.

?We believe this monitoring operation has played an important role in deterring the possible movement of international terrorist and Chechen fighters between Russia and Georgia,? John Tefft said.

In his testimony at the Senate Committee hearing, the President of the Washington-based Project on Transitional Democracies Bruce Jackson said that Russia?s decision to obstruct BMO ?could very well prove to be the death knell for the OSCE.?

Vladimir Socor, a Senior Fellow at the Washington-based think-tank Jamestown Foundation, said in his address to the Senate Committee that since 2004 ?Moscow [has] threate[d] to destroy the OSCE by blocking the adoption of the organization?s budget and terminating certain OSCE activities.?

?Russia does not want to kill the OSCE but rather to harness and use the weakened organization,? Vladimir Socor added.