Russia's rhetoric not helpful for jittery Georgia, EU says

BRUSSELS - Russia's criticism related to the Nato exercises in Georgia is mostly rhetorical and does not help to stabilise the situation, the head of the EU's monitoring mission along the borders with South Ossetia and Abkhazia (EUMM) told EUobserver.

The political tensions in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, where opposition protests calling for President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation have been going on for almost a month now, have so far not had any impact on the security along the administrative borders with the two separatist regions recognised as independent countries by Moscow, Hansjorg Haber said.

Last week, Russia signed border agreements with the two regions and started to deploy "additional personnel" to the territories, but the EUMM was not able to give any numbers.

President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a TV address on Tuesday night that in recent weeks, "Russia has increased its presence on the occupied territories of Georgia three-fold" and stationed "practically the entire Black Sea fleet in the territorial waters of Georgia."

"Having no access to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the EUMM cannot monitor this deployment properly. However, we have seen some new camps for Russian personnel," Mr Haber said.

Last August, Tbilisi launched a military assault on South Ossetia, immediately followed by a Russian invasion of the entire Georgian territory. The ceasefire agreement, concluded under EU mediation, stipulates that Russia must withdraw to the positions prior to the outburst of the war and allow the unarmed EU monitors into the whole territory of Georgia, including the two regions.

"So far, the security situation along the administrative boundary lines did not change," Mr Haber said, adding that the EU mission has concluded two agreements with the Georgian government to promote a limitation of troops aimed at diminishing the risk of a new conflict. He now expected to sign similar agreements with the administrations in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

For its part, Nato said Russia did not inform them about its troop movements and strongly disapproved of the border arrangement, "which goes further down the road that Russia is on in terms of violating the agreements they had with the EU and away from supporting Georgia's territorial integrity. We don't like this manoeuvre that they have engaged in," Nato spokesman James Appathurai told EUobserver.

In terms of leverage, however, he conceded that Nato was not going to send forces into Georgia and simply stressed that Russia should accept the EU monitors into Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as was agreed last August.

Nato exercises politicised by both sides

Nato military exercises, described as a "crisis response simulation" by the alliance, started yesterday in Georgia involving over 1,000 troops and ministerial staff from Nato and partner countries. The actions were deemed "muscle flexing" and "provocative" by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Mr Haber said that everyone had "taken note of Russia's criticism" and that there was "an element of rhetoric in it."

"But be that as it may, it does not contribute to stabilising and calming the situation," he stressed.

Regarding the failed mutiny at a military base on Tuesday, which the Georgian authorities initially blamed Russia for, Mr Haber said that the EUMM did not see the evidence the Georgian government has gathered against the mutineers.

"The link to Russia seems very uncertain. In a departure from previous statements on the same day, the Georgian government said in a briefing for ambassadors in Tbilisi that they had no evidence for such a link," Mr Haber added.

On the Nato side, diplomats were scoffing not only at Russia's criticism against the exercises, but also at President Saakashvili's hasty conclusion that Russia had plotted a military coup against him.

"The exercises have been politicised by too many parties. Everybody knows or should know two things: first, that Georgia is not the object of these exercises, nor the subject of them. It is simply the host of exercises that took place in Armenia last year and that are not Nato, but partnership exercises," Nato's spokesman said.

Mr Appathurai stressed that Russia was invited several times to send observers and Moscow could still do so.

"Georgia should also not link this exercise to anything else that might have happened, for instance the mutiny or whatever it was and we have conveyed that message. Yes, unfortunately it has been misused in public by more than one party," he said in reference to Mr Saakashvili's claims that the mutiny was aimed at disrupting the Nato exercises.

Russian-Nato relations not frozen

Despite the tit-for-tat expulsion of two Nato envoys in Moscow after two Russian diplomats were stripped of their credentials to the Brussels-based Nato headquarters due to a spy row which first emerged in Estonia, Russia-Nato relations were "certainly not frozen," Mr Appathurai said.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday announced he would cancel his meeting with Nato counterparts, as a sign of protest over the expulsion and against the backdrop of the Nato exercises.

However, first signs of a thaw already emerged on Thursday, with the speaker of Russia's lower house, Boris Gryzlov, confirming that his country would take part in a session of the Nato parliamentary assembly.

"It is clear that now, even despite the moves made by Nato, we want to continue the dialogue," the speaker said.

According to Nato diplomats, Russia does not want to freeze relations, as it genuinely has an interest in the US-led talks on arms control. The spat over Georgia and the spies was just a bit of "showing off," they say.