Russia Sceptical over Georgia’s S.Ossetia Action Plan

Russia has officially rejected Tbilisi’s Peace Plan on South Ossetian conflict resolution ahead of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana on December 5-6, where the Georgian delegation will try to secure further international support for this plan.

This Action Plan is a set of objectives and steps that the Georgian authorities intend to undertake to foster a resolution to the South Ossetian conflict in the nearest future so that a final solution can be achieved by the end of 2006. The Georgian side’s intention to achieve final solution of the conflict in less than one year became one of the reasons of the Russia’s criticism towards this Action Plan.

In an information note issued on December 2 the Russian Foreign Ministry also said that the Action Plan does not coincide with the ‘three-stage’ peace plan voiced by President Saakashvili in September, 2004.

So called ‘three-stage’ plan is more general and proposes a demilitarization of the conflict zone at the first stage, confidence-building and social-economic rehabilitation measures at the second stage and a comprehensive political settlement of the conflict at the third stage.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, who voiced the details of Action Plan this October at the OSCE Permanent Council, says that this document is based on the ‘three-stage’ plan, but with the difference that the recent one envisages detailed timeframe for implementing certain measures.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Mikhail Kaminin said that “weakness of”, as he put it, “Nogaideli’s plan,” is also the demand to change the current negotiating format and involve negotiators from the U.S., EU and OSCE in the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC).

“Georgia’s new initiative also differs [from Saakashvili’s three-stage proposal] by placing an unjustifiable emphasis on issues related to defining the future political status of South Ossetia. Achievement of this goal, which in the previous Georgian proposals was postponed, has now been scheduled to happen by the end of 2006, in the new version,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Ljubljana on December 5 that during his consultations with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili on the sideline of the OSCE Ministerial Council he will try to find out what is the Georgian side’s final proposal, the one voiced by President Saakashvili in September, 2004, or the one put forth by Prime Minister Nogaideli.

Apart of other issues, such as adoption of law on restitution by the Georgian Parliament by December, 2005 and calculation of pension arrears for the population of South Ossetia also in December, the Action Plan also envisages holding of bilateral talks between Georgian PM Nogaideli and South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity, as well as setting up of a joint Georgian-Ossetian police structures.

But prospects of implementation of these measures – Nogaideli-Kokoity and police cooperation – do not seem promising especially after the Georgian Interior Ministry posted on its official web-site on November 26 a diagram under the name “Criminal Regime of the So-Called South Ossetian Authorities.” At the top of the diagram there is a photo of South Ossetian Leader Eduard Kokoity, who is accused of “racketeering, smuggling, kidnappings, corruption, persecution of political opponents.” Below Kokoity’s photo there are pictures of his government members, including Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzaev.

Meanwhile situation in the conflict zone remains tense. In a recent incident on December 5 the Georgian Military Police injured and arrested Viacheslav Kudziev, deputy chief of police of the Ossetian village of Artsevi.

Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said that Viacheslav Kudziev, who was arrested near the Georgian village of Ergneti, is a member of “the criminal group” which is engaged in counterfeiting US dollars.

“This case proves once again that South Ossetia is a nest of criminals… This was our third operation against those persons who are engaged in counterfeiting currency. Unfortunately, in one of the previous operation, one of the criminals – Erik Dudaev could escape, but we will capture him anyway,” Irakli Okruashvili told reporters on December 5.
 
Okruashvili did not comment why the Military Police became engaged in this operation to arrest Kudziev. The Military Police – a body of the Georgian Defense Ministry was set up just recently and is in charge of maintaining order and discipline in military units.