Interview of the Acting Chairman of the International PublicMovement "United Ossetia" Mikhail Chernov with IA "Res"
International Public Movement "United Ossetia" has put forward a kind of an economic program for Ossetia. What kind of projects it has covered and what do you expect?
In Ossetia must be implemented the projects of the All-Russian importance actual for Eurasia. Their implementation in addition to nice bonuses as jobs and contracts to the Ossetian companies will solve the main problem: the infrastructure unity with Russia and the future Eurasian Union, impossibility of the political and physical separation of Ossetia, the inability to return to the past. The projects are as follows.
First - the construction of roads by laying the concrete slabs with the guarantee term of 60-80 years without major repairs. This technology is new only for the Russian Federation. The U.S. and Europe have been constructing such roads for a long time. In Ossetia and Transcaucasia, taking into account the presence of the Russian military bases in South Ossetia and Armenia, the new technologies are especially important because, such roads can be exploited by military vehicles without being damaged.
Second – the building the infrastructure solid transport and logistics corridor through the Ruksky and the Mamison mountain passes to the Black Sea ports of Batumi and perhaps even Poti, as well as to the Caucasus in the direction of Armenia and Iran. This corridor will link Russia and the Central Asian states, Kazakhstan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, the Black Sea states. This includes a short but very important, railway Alagir - Tskhinval. The fact that some areas are still under Tbilisi's control, makes no difference. The regime of Ivanishvili - Saakashvili is not eternal. The situation in the neighboring country is unstable, and by the autumn the Georgian duumvirate will have big problems. Finally, the Tbilisi regime will recognize South Ossetia. They will not have other choice.
Third - a project for a solid small power system for small and medium-sized businesses in the North Caucasus. There are a lot of rivers there and it`s expensive to wire up each potentially perspective region. Small hydro power plants on the rivers will be very useful here.
All three of these projects must be international, for the benefit of all our Eurasian allies, first of all, for Kazakhstan. Infrastructure projects in South Ossetia with the participation of the Kazakh investments can become a pilot for the bilateral Russian-Kazakh cooperation and triangular cooperation of companies from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in the North Caucasus and Central Asia region.
What is the situation with the railroad? This topic was discussed repeatedly for the last 20 years.
The idea of connecting the North-Caucasian railway with the Trans-Caucasian railway across the Main Caucasian Ridge is not new. However, in the Russian Empire and in the USSR, Georgia had some kind of secret special status. But local leaders wanted their de facto autonomy not to be "diluted" by common infrastructure of the Russian state. Therefore, in the Soviet era, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union such plans were strongly opposed. And the plans were concentrated just on Ossetia. They discussed the various options of reunification of Tskhinval with Alagir or Vladikavkaz. The options were being considered in the Russian Empire and in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, 1940s and 1960s. But Tbilisi did not want it and confounded the Center`s plans. In the mid-1990s, it was supposed the creation of some "offshore" infrastructure cluster with some obscure status of a free economic zone. Now this is not necessary. We have the state, and there will not be any "black hole" here. With the independence of South Ossetia it`s pointless and harmful to take into consideration the opinion of Tbilisi. In 2009 the President of the Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin stated the readiness to build a railway line from Alagir to Tskhinval. We need a new financing scheme. Implementation of this relatively small financially project is available in case of attracting investors of the "VTB" and "Vnesheconombank" in conjunction with the foreign banks, including the "Development Bank of Kazakhstan."
In recent years Georgia has been transformed into one of the main transit points for drug trafficking in the Black Sea countries and Europe, including the European part of Russia. May it put obstacles in implementing the infrastructure projects?
Where there are Russian troops and border guards, will never be any drug trafficking. Reunion of all Ossetia will put an end to it. Drugs will never be smuggled to the ports or to the capital of Ajaria Batum neither through Trialeti or through Truso, nor through the Georgian Military Road, the Transcaucasian highway, or through the Ossetian Military road.
