“Decisions made by the Kremlin are difficult to explain from a rational point of view” - Boriss Cilevics (Exclusive)
The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Georgia, Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE) and Boriss Cilevics (Latvia, SOC), have expressed their deep concern over the treaty proposed by Russia for “alliance and integration” between the Russian Federation and the self-proclaimed “Republic of Abkhazia.”
“This proposed agreement violates international law and is another example of the creeping annexation of the Georgian region of Abkhazia by the Russian Federation,” they said. “Instead of creating new barriers between peoples, Russia should rather encourage and facilitate contacts between people residing in Abkhazia and those in the rest of Georgia.”
For more analysis and elaboration, Georgian Journal contacted PACE co-rapporteur Boriss Cilevics himself:
– As we said in our statement, from a legal point of view this document is indeed illegitimate, as neither the Council of Europe nor the international community recognizes Abkhazia and South Ossetia as sovereign states, but instead as territories that are part of Georgia. Politically, it makes things quite worse. In our political exchange, what we tell our colleagues is that this creates obstacles for the simple, most basic human interactions as well. This is most alarming.
– Do you think the Kremlin cares much about human interaction?
– Here is our position: One thing is the disagreement over legal issues – a dispute as to who runs the territory De Jure or De Facto. Still there are some basic values that all countries of the Council of Europe share and whatever political disagreements might be, we should not prevent human contact – social cooperation and economic cooperation.
– Do you expect any diplomatic pressure from the CoE to be exerted on Russia over this Abkhazia deal?
– In the parliamentary assembly, we are not diplomats; we are politicians, so I cannot estimate the diplomatic pressure. But our position has been expressed on numerous occasions, and Russia is the only member state with a different position on this issue. All other member states are opposed to it. No one else supports this decision. There are discussions, of course, but the absolute majority agrees that this decision is very troubling and only makes things worse.
