Russia and Georgia are, as one would expect, making absolutely zero progress on removing Russia’s military bases from Georgian territory (excluding the peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia).
Eurasia Daily Monitor‘s Vladimir Socor says that Russian demands are increasing beyond the ridiculous, made-up demand of $200-300 million to cover relocation costs and the 9-11 year timeframe. In fact, Russia now says that the total cost could be well over a billion dollars for the removal of its 5,000 troops. Other new demands include repatriation of Meskhetian Turks (One wonders if that would include the handful that have Russian citizenship or just the ones that the Russian government tolerates being abused and refuses to grant basic rights to in Krasnodar) and a political treaty guaranteeing a “special role” for Russia in settlement of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia conflicts and the right to protect human bargaining chips citizens in these territories.
If I thought that they were actually interested in settling these issues, I’d call this extortion. But then again, for reasons inexplicable to me, Russia seems committed to avoiding conflict resolution throughout the Caucasus.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2973 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.
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