The situation in the village of Uista (Tsnelis) in Znaur district of the Republic of South Ossetia worsened at the end of August this year, when Georgian police illegally put up a roadblock on the territory of South Ossetia. Representatives of the Georgian armed forces immediately appeared at the post, which could not but frighten the South Ossetian residents living in the border territories of this region. The villagers turned to the authorities of the Republic for help, and in order to ensure the security of the South Ossetian residents, South Ossetia put up its post. Since then, the current situation is discussed at the technical meetings in the format of Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRM). The seventh technical meeting has already ended, but the parties have not yet reached a common denominator.
To fly in and scout
Since late August, the airspace of South Ossetia has been periodically violated by Georgia, drones arrive in our republic to "stay", the number of which, as they say, "is growing by leaps and bounds." In this regard, the State Security Committee of South Ossetia has repeatedly made statements. “So, in the period from November 8 to 11, the number of cases when the Georgian side used to conduct reconnaissance in the area of military drones and police drones increased unprecedentedly. In particular, on November 8 from 02.30 within an hour 4 UAVs carried out flight for the purpose of monitoring of border territory in areas of the village of Chorchana, Kobi and Abano along the line of power lines.
On the same day, at 21.05, the KGB Border Service recorded a UAV flight at a low altitude from the location of the Georgian police post (quarry in the area of 903.2 altitude) in the direction of the n. Chorchana and further - Kobi. November 9 at 12.35 UAV flew from the side of. Chorchana in the direction of the settlement Koda. And already at 18.00 from the location of the Georgian police post from the village of Koda was recorded the flight of 6 quadcopters, which conducted reconnaissance in the area of altitude 991.1, and then headed to the. Chorchana, made a video fix and proceeded towards the village of Abana (Georgia),” the KGB statement said.
Moreover, representative of international observers, who have been working on the territory of Georgia for several years, and it would seem perfectly well to know the line of crossing the state border between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia and the scope of their activities according to their mandate, have also joined the drone-violators. But alas, pretending to be lost, they walked into the territory of our republic, and during the detention they could not give a clear answer about the purpose of their visit and the illegal crossing of the state border of South Ossetia. But they can make “valuable suggestions” to representatives of South Ossetia, although it would be more correct to advise Georgia the way out that has developed through the fault of the Georgian side, the situation in Tsnelis.
So, before the last technical meeting in the IPRM format, they made an amazing proposal to the South Ossetian party. As the head of the South Ossetian delegation to the IPRM, Yegor Kochiev, said, “the EU and OSCE observer mission representatives sent their phased plan to resolve the situation in the village of Tsnelis because of a police post illegally put up by the Georgian side in South Ossetia. A phased solution to this issue for representatives of the EU and the OSCE is to limit the type of weapons used by security forces, restrictions on the number of contingent, etc. But all these points are secondary for us. For South Ossetia, the number of Georgian policemen located on the territory of South Ossetia does not matter, for us even one is unacceptable. There should not be Georgian policemen in our territory.”
Remembering Rain Grist
Head of the Information and Analytical Office of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of South Ossetia, Yuri Vazagov, believes that the activities of the EU monitoring mission, which, according to the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreement, is responsible for security in the region, over the past period more and more resembles the behavior of the OSCE mission operating in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict until 2008 and participating in the settlement process.
“Instead of contributing to the peace process, the OSCE representatives applied a double standard policy in their work, hiding the preparation of the Saakashvili regime for a large-scale invasion of South Ossetia. Just like their EU colleagues, the OSCE observers turned a blind eye to the obvious provocations and seizure of the territory of South Ossetia by Georgian law enforcement agencies. Any retaliatory action of the South Ossetian armed forces, on the contrary, caused them loud protests,” - he says.
The expert has reminded that in this regard, the behavior of the current head of the EU monitoring mission, Eric Hega, resembles the actions of the head of the Tskhinval office of the OSCE mission Gancho Ganchev, who in 2004 took a clear pro-Georgian position, refusing to respond to the violation of the Dagomys agreements by the Saakashvili regime.
“Unfortunately, such employees as Rain Grist, who are able to objectively respond to the current situation, despite the geopolitical interests of their organization, are very rare for Western international structures. Basically, their representatives clearly proceed from the logic of geopolitical confrontation and are focused on countering the influence of Russia, which we once again observe in the case of the Tsnelis crisis,” - said Vazagov.
The EU functionaries, according to him, who regularly make anti-Ossetian and anti-Russian statements, should understand that a serious aggravation of the situation in the region will be a new blow to the EU’s reputation, which has not yet recovered after Brexit and other internal problems. For example, the OSCE was not able to restore its former authority after the August fiasco of 2008.
Speaking about the way out of this situation, Vazagov has noted that in today's realities it is extremely important for South Ossetia to maintain a principled and consistent position, while mobilizing efforts on the diplomatic and information front, which, in his opinion, is now being done.
"Prompt and widespread public awareness of other countries about the situation in the region will allow our diplomacy to successfully advance the interests of South Ossetia and make it difficult for hybrid technologies to be implemented by Georgia," he said. "It is also necessary to continue the process of strengthening the borders of the Republic, despite the hysterical reaction from Georgia and its Western partners. A complex of these measures, including active cooperation on all issues with the Russian Federation, will allow the Republic not only to successfully withstand the next round pressure from Georgia, but also enter new positions in the international arena".
