Sokhumi Offers Moscow to Take Abkhazia ‘Under Military Control’
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on May 6 the proposal on “comprehensive military cooperation” with Abkhazia was not discussed.
Sergey Shamba, the foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia, said in an interview with the Russian newspaper, Izvestia, published on May 6 that Sokhumi wanted Russia to take Abkhazia’s territory under its military control.
“We are offering the most comprehensive military cooperation with Russia,” Shamba said. “We are offering Russia to take this territory [of Abkhazia] under its military control. In exchange we are demanding guarantees of our security.”
The Russian Foreign Minister, however, said as quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency: “We have not received any proposals in this respect; I do not think that this issue is being considered at all.”
The Abkhaz Foreign Minister also said that Russia should also be interested in the proposal, as it would secure safe conduct of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Shamba alleged that Tbilisi would try to thwart the Olympic Games through “military blackmail.”
“I’ve heard an opinion that just on the eve of the Olympic Games Russia may give Abkhazia to Georgia and there will be no military conflict. But are we a thing? How it is possible to ‘give’? We will fight for our independence till the death of last Abkhazian,” Shamba said. “There also is another opinion: the conflict should remain frozen before the end of the Olympic Games; but this is not a solution… Olympic Games are looming – there is no time to wait. Peace will reign as sooner as Russia recognizes Abkhazia de jure.”
He also said that Russia’s move to establish legal links with Sokhumi amounted to Abkhazia’s “de facto recognition” by Russia.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
