Russia-Georgia and the WTO - the view from cyxymu

I've translated a post by cyxymu, apropos of Russia easing some of the visa restrictions on Georgians (possibly related to Georgia's role in Russia's WTO accession). Having a visa regime is an unusual situation between Russia and a former Soviet republic; however, it's been the situation - with occasional talk of easing the requirement - for Georgians and Russians since around 2000, and has been an element of Russia's support for the secessionist areas of Georgia as well as - more recently - a representation of increased tensions between the two countries. Now it looks like Russia will allow certain categories of Georgians to receive visas:

Only a naive person could believe that the Russian authorities decided to loosen the visa blockade of Georgia just out of kindness. No, with this action the they wanted to sweeten the arrival of the delegation from Russia to negotiate Russia's WTO accession. The blockade is the stick, and the issuance of visas to certain groups of Georgian citizens is a small carrot.

However, Georgia, I think, will continue to insist on the legalization of all border checkpoints on the Russo-Georgian border. Recently Russia has illegally opened checkpoints on the [River] Psou and at the Roksk tunnel, which Georgia has declared closed some time ago. And Georgia demands that Georgian customs officers occupy these checkpoints.

One other disagreement is the Russian ban on the import of Georgian Borzhomi [mineral water] and Georgian wines, based on trumped-up reasons. How can Georgia agree to Russia's WTO accession without the resolution of these problems? I don't think Georgia will agree.

I of course do not intend to suggest that WTO membership is so necessary to the Russian people, but it is necessary for the oligarchs, and therefore for Putin, and he pressures Georgia to admit Russia to the WTO because his oligarchs are losing nearly a billion dollars a year.

Cyxymu is probably the most-read and most commented on blog about Abkhazia. It's written,
I believe, by a refugee (or, rather, internally displaced person) from the conflict. The blog's full title is "Memories of Sukhumi, the war, and pain," which gives you some idea of its focus, although recently the author has written a bit about the conflict in South Ossetia as well. It often has photos of Sukhumi and other places in Abkhazia, along with reminiscences from the blog's author or others in the comments section, and it has a consistent community of readers/commenters who guarantee a lively dialogue and often add their own very interesting information about goings-on in Abkhazia.

One of the topics raised in the comments to the post I translated above - and sure to have been discussed in the WTO accession talks - is the Russian ban on Georgian wine and mineral water imports.

Tbilisi, Georgia, August 13, 2006

Mini-documentary on EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM)

The EU is "Working Together for Regional Security and Economic Development on the Moldovan-Ukrainian Border." One of the goals has been to monitor and cut down on the level of smuggling on that border.

From the EUBAM website:

EUBAM was established by the EU at the joint request of the Presidents of Moldova and Ukraine in their joint letter of 2 June 2005.

While the management of the border guard and customs services is firmly in the hands of the experienced personnel of the two states, the EU stands ready to assist and advise wherever this may be helpful. The Mission is seeking to make a sustainable contribution to enhancing the delivery of good quality border and customs services to the citizens of Moldova and Ukraine.

Our common aim is a system of border and customs controls and border surveillance which meets not only European standards, but also, and especially, the legitimate needs of the citizens of each country.

I found this documentary on YouTube:

Tangerines, Moldovans far from home, and a river named Psou

This nearly five-year-old story definitely fits into the "truth is stranger - and sometimes more tragic - than fiction" category:

Tangerine Fever Grips Abkhazia By Inal Khashig on the Psou River
(IWPR Caucasus Reporting Service No.156, 21-Nov-2002)

The "yellow fever" season has begun in Abkhazia.

That is what Abkhaz call the time of year when the tangerine harvest is ripe and thousands of residents of the unrecognised republic flock to its northern border with Russia to trade them.

Since the end of the war with Georgia in 1993, the tangerine trade has become the main source of income for Abkhaz families. With the region's chronic lack of employment, the money they earn in the three months of the season must be enough to sustain them over the rest of the year.

With the border closed to the south, the tangerine traders all head north to the river Psou that divides Abkhazia from Russia. Here on either side of a narrow bridge, the respective customs services have set up posts. [...]

"I could trade my tangerines on the Abkhaz side too, but the price here is much lower than on the Russian side and my family badly needs the extra roubles," said Nadezhda, a woman in her fifties, standing in the long queue.

She said the salary she earned after 30 years teaching as a maths teacher was not enough to live on. Which is why she has to spend her weekends ferrying up to 50 kilogrammes of tangerines in a small cart, made out of an old child's pram. When she has sold her cargo, she generally uses the money to buy food, which is cheaper in Russia.

"My daughter-in-law used to come here," Nadezhda said. "But she developed health problems and the doctors told her that if she did not stop dragging heavy loads, she could not have children. So I took over the tangerines. Otherwise we would have nothing to feed the family." [...]

The most industrious of these traders earn up to 300 roubles (a little less than ten dollars) a day, which in Abkhazia is regarded as a good wage. Over the last two years, they have been joined by people from the North Caucasus and places as far a field as Moldova and Ukraine.

"When I was a child, tangerines were a fantastic treat, but now I can't bear the sight of them," said Svetlana Koditsa, from the town of Beltsy [Bălţi] in Moldova.

Svetlana makes three trips across the border a day before she has something left over from what she pays to cover her accommodation, food and bribes to the police, who, she complains, demand money even from those standing patiently in line.

"You try not to give it to them and they might not let you through," she said angrily. [...]

The whole story is worth a read, as it talks a bit about who profits from the trade and why the problem is intractable - an object study in corruption. I would imagine things have changed for the better since 2002, but perhaps not by much.

I found this story last fall while doing research on Russia's passportization campaign in Abkhazia. The article at one point mentions all of the Abkhazians* who had recently begun to receive Russian passports - and perhaps citizenship, depending on what you think constitutes citizenship. I decided to try to find the story once again and post the part about poor Svetlana from Balti, and it was easy to find - I just googled "Psou tangerine Moldova," and the article was, of course, the first result.

Incidentally, IWPR is a treasure trove of searchable, first-hand reporting by local correspondents. They even publish (online it's in pdf format) a locally oriented newspaper, Panorama, in Georgian and Russian, which turned out to be a good source of citations about Russian economic interests in Abkhazia (e.g., the Moscow Military District renting a Sukhumi resort for use by its personnel) and the local controversy they create; and about some of the ongoing debates in local politics. Of all of the post-Soviet secessionist statlets, Abkhazia seems to have the most developed political culture - elections which even Moscow can't fully control, for example.

For some stunning photos from Abkhazia, check out LJ user kunstkamera's recent set (HT Levan); this railway-themed set from cyxymu (who has many other photos from the region), recently featured at Registan; and of course the set I linked to earlier here.


*I prefer to use a non-ethnic term referring to people of all nationalities who live in Abkhazia, since the ethnic Abkhaz are still not a majority there - even after ethnically cleansing hundreds of thousands of Georgians, they are but a plurality in their own land, which they share with Russians, Armenians, and some returned Georgians. And of course, statistics from the region are unreliable and disputed.

Hitting them where it hurts

Coming after the Ukraine gas crisis, this looks like another example of Russia using economic levers seasoned with an unconvincing pretext to stick it to near-abroad countries who hold their heads up too high:

RUSSIA TO CRACK DOWN ON WINE IMPORTS FROM MOLDOVA, GEORGIA
Interfax news agency (Russia), March 21, 2006

Tight restrictions may be imposed on the import of Moldovan and Georgian wines to Russia in the near future, Russia's chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko told journalists on Monday.

"We are strongly concerned about the situation with Moldovan and Georgian wines," Onishchenko said. Heavy metals, pesticides and other hazardous substances were discovered in wine imports from the two countries, he said.

The official, however, declined to provide further details.

So, after the "gas war" comes the "wine war"? At least it's got more alliterative value. And I'm sure these sour grapes have nothing to do with the souring of relations between Russia and a couple of its more unruly former subjects. The memo to Tbilisi and Chisinau really reads, "Give up Abkhazia and Transnistria (respectively), and stop flirting with NATO, and let the wine flow as before. Don't you love us anymore?"

I'm no economist, but my guess is that this is probably a bigger potential problem for Moldova, especially if the Russians decide to extend their "concern" to fruits & veggies or processed products like apple juice. Since it seems like just a war of words for the time being, going after the wine is first and foremost an attack on Georgian and Moldovan national pride. After all, wine is the product that is most closely associated in the Russian mind with either of those countries.

What Russia really needs to do is cut down on the amount of counterfeit wine and cognac (not to mention vodka) production that takes place on its own territory, which has done a lot to give Georgian and Moldovan wines a bad name in recent years. Since some fake hooch is no doubt mixed and bottled in Moldova and Georgia, better customs enforcement (cue laugh track) would also be a remedy.

And maybe "Russia's chief epidemiologist" should be more concerned about the epidemic of glue-sniffing among street kids, or the epidemic of industrial-strength alcohol consumption (I don't just mean the intensity of consumption but the fact that the products consumed are often not ones intended for human consumption) in Russian villages, than with imperfect imported wines.

As someone who's experienced the unpleasant consequences of consuming fake Barza Neagra ("Chorny Aist") cognac bought from someone selling it out of a bag on the sidewalk near Belorussky station, I support changes that will bring about the purity of grape-based potent potables, but I have a hard time believing this is such a change.

I suppose that another possible motivation for this policy change (if it really goes beyond words to deeds, that is) could be an attempt by Russia, Inc., to promote domestic wines from the south of Russia.

On a lighter note, "We are strongly concerned about the situation with Moldovan and Georgian wines" is the kind of official statement that the late bard Vladimir Vysotsky could have had a songwriting field day with.