In these days we can hear a lot about speculative treason, which Russia committed against one of the closest ally South Ossetia. Some pro-western experts assure public of Moscow capability to negotiate with new Tbilisi authorities: refuse the recognition of South Ossetia independence in exchange for extending cooperation with Georgia. Meanwhile it’s clear that such statements bear no relation with reality.
The primal factor of such scenario impossibility is very high cooperation level between Russian Federation and South Ossetia. Substantial evidence of that teamwork is negotiations between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Leonid Tibilov, that were held March 21 in Moscow. Leaders talked about politics, military, transport, energetics, social and law enforcement problems. New 2018-2019 investment program is under development. It will contain some proposes that South Ossetia specialists have prepared and Vladimir Putin assured that it would be fully realized: road construction, social environment, health care, culture and sport facilities development. Besides that, according to negotiation results, investing agency, which was formed on three banks base (VTB, VEB, Agricultural Bank), will be fully supported: local business can use this agency for credits to create new workspaces.
After the meeting Leonid Tibilov said, that this negotiations had clearly showed Russian interest in its ally development. Russian President pointed that Moscow is intend to support South Ossetia and strengthen its national identity. Also, essential result of negotiations is agreement for integration South Ossetia military units into Russian Armed Forces.
Russia continues its work on worldwide acceptance of South Ossetia independence recognition. While Georgian politicians traditionally make protest against “illegal elections in occupied territories”. Main reason for such behavior is establishment’s fear of opposition, which is always ready to blame the authorities on backdown and week political efforts. That is why, ruling group “Georgian Dream”, focusing on pragmatizing relations with Russia, will response tough.
West consider Georgia as an ally, for this reason USA and EU will insist on Russian deoccupation. However, western experts suggest that Tbilisi won’t get any real support for status quo change – no military assistance. “Georgian Dream” strategy is almost similar to Saakashvili: closer to NATO and EU, but has another tactics. Saakashvili produced problems with thoughts of western help. “Georgian Dream” keeps in mind 2008 experience and supposes that lack of confrontation with Russia will lead to NATO membership. But joint NATO Georgia projects will sustain cooperation among South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Russian Federation.
