Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 11 – Russian forces
have unilaterally moved border markers 800 meters deeper into Georgia, an
action that the Georgian foreign ministry has protested in vigorous terms but
the rest of the world appears to have ignored, even though such territorial
aggrandizement by any country except perhaps Russia would spark protests almost
everywhere.
Yesterday, the Georgian foreign
ministry handed over a protest note to the Swiss embassy in Tbilisi which has
represented the interests of Russia in Georgia since Moscow’s invasion in 2008
(nr2.ru/News/politics_and_society/Rossiyane-snova-otobrali-u-Gruzii-chast-territorii-103545.html).
Georgian media report that Russian
forces put up banners and signs indicating the border change in the area around
the village of Tamarasheni, whose residents said “this banner didn’t appear
after the war; it appeared only now.”
When the people there went to harvest their crops, they found that some
of their lands were now on the Russian side of the border.
This is the second time this year
that Russian forces have illegally extended their country’s border deeper into
Georgia. A month ago, they did so when
American military units were in Georgia to conduct maneuvers. As a result of
that change, Russian military units are now 1.5 kilometers from the
Tbilisi-Gori highway and close to the Baku-Supsa oil pipelines.
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