Recently, under the so-called "people's diplomacy" the new Georgian government sent its emissaries to Russia, mainly to North Ossetia, for meetings with the Ossetian public. How do you assess the actions of the Georgian authorities and the position of some Ossetians who agreed to take part in such actions?
Vyacheslav Gobozov, South Ossetian leader of the political party "Fydybaestae":
There is nothing surprising in such actions.
As it is known, representatives of the political bloc of the "Georgian Dream", both during the campaign and now have been declaring that they will draw South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia. In this case they are not talking about the recognition of the independence of these countries.
The meetings taking place now within the framework of the so-called "public diplomacy" – which has no relation to the real diplomacy - play an important role in achieving this goal.
They need those marginal persons, whom the Georgian "public diplomacy" has found among the Ossetians, only for propaganda purposes. They will not affect the vector chosen by South Ossetia.
Saying that we should completely avoid the participation in such kind of meetings - is also wrong. One must use these platforms to express our position, but do it very carefully. The more people will hear about our position from our lips, the better for us. People involved in such meetings should clearly ask themselves: who arranged this event and for what purpose? Will there be any benefit for the Republic to participate in this event? How serious is the platform from where you want to state your position?
Taking into consideration the situation around South Ossetia, I would like, nevertheless, to advise to refrain from taking part in such meetings - in a way, we become blind instruments in the hands of the Georgian authorities.
Against the background of the new challenges for South Ossetia at the national level should be developed a clear vector of behavior (the best name can be given while working on it) which will be the guideline to representatives of all levels of the civil society, as well as in what actions representatives of South Ossetia should participate and which should be avoided.
Alexander Kelekhsaev, a journalist:
The actions of the Georgian authorities are not original. In fact, the so-called public diplomacy is aimed at implementing a long-standing dream of Georgia – the Georgian territorial aggrandizement by annexing South Ossetia and Abkhazia. To reach this aim is being used a wide range of the foreign policy and diplomatic channels.
Georgia's new authorities have realized that to sort out relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia by force could lead to the final destruction of the State of Georgia and are trying to regain the lost ground in Russia, especially in the North Caucasus, with the help of humanitarian assault. In this process a Georgian lobby in Russia will not play last fiddle.
Carefully concealing hatred towards the Russian people and the Russian state, the Georgian authorities, together with the Georgian lobby in Russia, will try to create the image of Georgia as the state friendly to Russia and to the Russian people. Do not be surprised if the shabby theater and cinema actors, writers and the intellectuals from Georgia will appear on the Russian TV channels and will begin the next attack (after a decade of anti-Russian hysteria) of love for Russia and the Russian people. It`s enough to recall the words by Vakhtang Kikabidze, who, after the expulsion of the Georgian occupants from South Ossetia by the Russian troops in August 2008, said, "Russia ... We should do something with this country." During his life he had been eating out of the Russian hands, and nevertheless thought to turn his back on the Russian public ...
Any Russian film director, who will invite this rabid Russophobe (remembered by his hysterical role in the film "Mimino," fawning upon his chiefs and the big daddies and shouting at women) to act in his film, actually he will hold the same views, and will insult the memory of the Russian soldiers who died defending the people of South Ossetia and the southern borders of Russia in August 2008.
An active work of the Georgian authorities in the North Caucasus is also disturbing, especially in North Ossetia. Georgian influence on the situation in North Ossetia has clear purpose - to split the North and South Ossetia.
To achieve this objective will be organized the activities involving ethnic Ossetians. A striking example - the recent meeting of the Moscow Ossetian community with the main person of the Georgian clergy and concurrently the most spiritless Georgian - the head of the Georgian Church Ilia II, who blessed the destruction of the Abkhazians and South Ossetians.
The meeting has had the opposite effect. First, to the audience were invited the persons who did not enjoy prestige in South Ossetia. Secondly, they did not represent South Ossetia and therefore had no legal or moral right to decide the issues of South Ossetia. And if Torchinov and Juruli believe that politics is such a simple thing - as gynecology and dentistry, they are mistaken. Third, the meeting consolidated and united South Ossetia. The authorities, society, political parties and ordinary citizens, all sectors of society, despite the internal contradictions, have unanimously condemned this meeting.
Therefore, one should only welcome the actions of the Georgian authorities, who have been working by the boomerang principle, provided by the parallel (emergency) activation of the authorities, political parties, NGOs, the public of South and North Ossetia.
Mikhail Chernov, Executive Secretary - Acting Chairman of the executive committee of the International Public Movement "United Ossetia":
What is going on, it`s hard to be called the people's diplomacy. Representatives of the Georgian NGOs have arrived. And they have arrived with the approval of the high-ranking Russian officials. To be sure, these people have often met with the politicians and the NGO representatives from South Ossetia on the western platforms.
The problem is not in the fact of the visit. The problem is that these people were brought by the Russian side against a background of the campaign for rapprochement between Moscow and Tbilisi by the gradual pushing of South Ossetia in Georgia. The meeting with Ilia II with several Ossetian businessmen and members of the Moscow Ossetian community, discussions around this meeting, the visit of the NGOs representatives , which are received by the high-ranking officials in North Ossetia - all these are the links of one chain. The testing phase of the public opinion has passed, now they have started making the first steps. I think that at this point in Ossetia neither the elite nor the people have yet realized the imminent threat over our Republic. The implementation of the already launched scenario could be stopped only by the strong position of the broad masses of the Ossetian population.
