President Putin’s Comments on Georgia

Putin: in the former USSR our partners perceive a special role to be played by Russia. Photo: Russian President’s Press Office

Civil Georgia publishes a transcript of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting at Novo Ogarevo with a group of foreign academics and journalist, which took place on September 6, 2004, in the wake of the Beslan school siege. The transcript was made available by The Guardian. This is the only part of the transcript in which the Russian President makes comments concerning Russo-Georgian relations, as well as the situation in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

President Putin, who says that Georgia “was put together very artificially in a similar manner as other creations in the former Soviet Union,” blames Tbilisi for recent escalations in South Ossetia. He says that despite Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal assurances to deal with the South Ossetian problem peacefully, Georgia sent its troops to the region but was forced to pull out its forces only after “some pressure from the U.S.”

Below is the transcript of President Putin’s comments:
Note from The Guardian:  The answers were the official interpreter’s version of Putin’s Russian, given sequentially after the President spoke.
 
Vladimir Putin: “Now talking about Georgia. Well, you know, Georgia is a very close country to Russia, both historically with its religion and with its traditions.
Georgia, being quite a large republic was put together very artificially in a similar manner as other creations in the former Soviet Union used to be. And I should say that the relations between the Ossetian and Georgian people has for whole centuries not been very easy and Ossetians believe that they have been subjected to some exploitation by Georgia. And, they believe that the nationality of Georgians was imposed on them both, both Ossetians and Abkhazians, and that has been the case in the passport when we had this itemization of ethnicity, where they would have pointed out themselves, especially living in the outer parts. Georgian, that was imposed on them by force. They were mentioned there as Georgians, that’s actually true in Russia as well.
Well, they preferred more their independence. Obstacles were caused for them to provide schooling for their children in their mother tongues and their other mutual claims which had been accumulated over the decades. Now both of them are telling us that as Georgians want to quit the USSR, we didn’t. So if they had to enjoy the right to quit USSR, why cannot we enjoy the right to quit Russia?
So let’s say that we are dealing with the in-depth roots of the Caucasus here, we have a stake not to have any conflict on our Southern borders. We want to see Georgia as stable and friendly and free. And about since the time that I came to Presidency we have done everything on our part to push the two sides closer, so that they would find it possible both for Abkhazians and Ossetians to find co-existence within the frameworks of Georgia.

Shevardnadze had recourse to the use of Chechen militants, transferring them to Abkhaz border from Chechen border. We said “Why do you do that? Do you want to explode the situation?” and he said ‘no’, he didn’t do that, and all the work, we showed him, which transported those troops, he said yes that happened, we did fire some people in the special services and the military. They for all purposes exploded the situation and rolled it back.

Now, as regards Mikhail Saakashvili, the new Georgian President has told me on several occasions that he wants to establish the contact necessary with the leadership and the people, and he wants to start incorporating them in the area of co-operation of humanitarian affairs. This would be the right thing to do.

But what has been done in practice to these? On both sides of the border in both Ossetia and Georgia, they have set up a security fence. So, according to the agreements reached there, there should be not more than 500 peacekeepers from each side, including Georgia, North Ossetia and Russian Federation. This makes up altogether 1,500.

But, what Georgians did was they introduced up to three thousand men of their own, on their own part of the security zone, and then go further into Southern Ossetia.

So, now they had three thousand five hundred, but the Ossetians saw that they were watching the situation, so they were clear that it will not stop there. Now it is three thousand people and will go on with four thousand five hundred, five thousand and then all of them will be captured, will be detained and will be shot. While after some pressure, not ours for that measure, but some pressure from the U.S. they had to withdraw their troops, but not for a long while. I think because they had that desire, that zeal to address the problem properly and efficiently, under the suspicion and concern that they might well resort to the use of force to address the problem.

I don’t think that will be productive. At the initial stage if they were to capture some cities including Tskhinvali [the capital of breakaway South Ossetia], still it would be a very lengthy and exhaustive and destructive process for Georgia itself.
The current processes were commenced with rejection of Ossetian autonomy in year 1990. But, what really is important here to answer the question you asked, in all hotspots of the territory of the former USSR our partners perceive a special role to be played by Russia. And, on similar occasions when talking to a partner there, they ask me well are there others that you have pressurized and we have conceded, answering ‘no’ we will not do that.

Some believe that if Russia were to express such a desire immediately overnight things would change to their liking, but this is not the case. That could only be the situation under the conditions when Russia was to pursue imperial policies, which is not the case. And such policies cost us very dear, so if we were to pressurize somebody in those areas to pursue our ends, then we will be hated in that area for hundreds of years.
We would be hated by the people who would believe Russia would have undertaken an unjust decision regarding that particular people. Thus, the countries on the territory of the former Soviet Union should learn to address their problems themselves, to seek for compromise, to agree and to look through to the fact that those decisions will be acted upon.
Russia, together with the entire international community could only play a role as intermediary in ensuring that this process of implementation will take place.”