The border opens, scapegoats are punished and more business as usual in the former Soviet Union

The location of the Zemo-Larsi border checkpoint in Caucasus mountains.

Last week was an unusually active one for me journalistically here in Georgia. I unofficially began work for Voice of America, wrapped up a story on Russian-Georgian trade and had my first press conference with Misha.

Much of that is for later posts. For now we’ll discuss the news of the week.

First, the Russian-Georgian border opened today for the first time since 2006 when Russia shut it claiming they needed to upgrade its security facilities at the two countries’ only legal border crossing — a move that coincided with Russia finding systematic impurities with all products imported from Georgia and also shutting down direct flights, essentially blockading the small Caucasus nation.

But that’s all in the past. In December, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said he saw “no obstacles” to reopen the border and allow trade to recommence — mostly to help Russian ally, Armenia, which is isolated without easy direct access to commerce with Russia. Talks continued and today was the fateful day, although Georgian state television reported that by 1 p.m., no one had yet attempted to cross.

Although individuals may not be itching to cross the border, major Georgian exporters are anxious to regain access to the Russian market, even if it remains unclear when their products will be once again approved for sale in Russia. Medvedev said in December that products “legally” imported from Georgia “should be received and sold like other products.” But that seems to leave some loopholes for the Kremlin to maintain bans on Georgian goods. I wrote a story on the issue last week, and will have more for you on that once it runs.

In other news, three employees of Gruzvzrivprom, the construction firm hired to demolish the “Memorial of Glory” monument to the victims and veterans of WWII in Kutaisi, have been declared culpable for the death of two people killed by flying debris during the demolition. The decision, made by a a Kutaisi court, sentenced the firm’s Kutaisi technical director, Kutaisi regional manager and, bafflingly, the Tbilisi regional manager as well to sentences of 4, 3 and 2 years respectively in prison. All have also been charged a roughly $3,000 fine.

None of these men were responsible for warning the public or evacuating and securing the area around demolition. Their sole responsibility was to blow up the monument on a specific date. It was the government’s role to warn the public, and for the local police to ensure everyone stayed out of the blast area. But, when veterans, activist groups and the opposition planned a well-publicized protest on the day of the demolition, Saakashvili pulled a trick-a-roo and decided to blow the thing two days early to avoid the bad press. The result was a poorly planned and hurriedly executed evacuation that left a woman and her 8-year-old daughter dead while they stood in what they were told was the safe zone. (For more on the Kutaisi memorial case, including why it had more to do with a grudge against a sculptor than with, well, anything else, click here)

Last week there was also the strange decision by the Georgian Parliament to draft an overture to the North Caucasus republics of the Russian Federation that would “promote the unity of all people living in the Caucasus region with the aim of deepening political, economic, inter-confessional and humanitarian cooperation.”

According to Tbilisi-based English-language newspaper, the Messenger, “[t]he initiative is supported by the entire Georgian Parliament and Nugzar Tsiklauri from the majority side thinks Georgian MPs will be able to establish direct links with the North Caucasus republics because they rather than the Russian Republic [sic] are the immediate neighbours of Georgia.”

There are still no diplomatic ties between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Georgia, and while most of the North Caucasus republics have the word “autonomous” placed before their names and their Kremlin-appointed local dictators are called “presidents,” they would never be authorized to actually speak with Georgian government officials independently. Basically it would be like Oregon acting independently to improve its relationship with North Korea — that is to say, absurd.

Russian officials have voiced their public annoyance with the move, saying it is provocative and will get no response, but the Messenger’s editorialist/journalist said essentially that if Russia is allowed to have a relationship with Georgia’s separatists, then Georgia should be allowed to do the same. Right, sure, especially if you want to give Russia an excuse to accuse you of supporting the ongoing insurgency in their country.

But I don’t want to waste any more pixels explaining the numerous ways this idea is insane. It’s obvious enough.

The last thing I want to mention is an issue that I will be looking into over the next couple of weeks. Watching the economics and politics of the Eurasian energy trade like I do, it was easy to suspect that Central Asian countries wanting to get more out of their gas deals with multinational companies, and gas-transit operators wanting to up their fees was going to produce a conflict. Sure enough, it now has.

Kazakhstan announced last week that it would halt transportation of its oil from the Tengiz field to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline because of a dispute over transit fees. Kazakh’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sauat Mynbayev downplayed the move.

“First of all, the volumes of Kazakh oil supplies to BTC are insignificant, second only Chevron is included, third, if tariffs are not suitable for Chevron-this is the company’s business whether to follow other routes which are more suitable for it”, Mynbayev said.

We’ll see what British Petroleum, the majority stakeholder in BTC have to say about that.