No Russian soap operas as Georgia marks anniversary

By Matt Robinson and Margarita Antidze http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUKTRE51O4Y420090225?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia, still smarting from a brief war with Russia last August, halted broadcasts of Russian soap operas and songs on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of its 1921 occupation by the Soviet Red Army.

Cars drove slowly along the main Rustaveli avenue in the capital, Tbilisi, at 11 a.m. (0700 GMT), horns blaring and red-and-white Georgian flags streaming from windows. Children stood in line outside schools.

Tbilisi city council said it would consider renaming 10 streets that still bear prominent Bolsheviks’ names and instead honor Georgian soldiers killed when Russian forces repelled Georgia’s assault on the rebel South Ossetia region last year.

“We are expressing our protest against the (1921) occupation of Georgia, but we also want to say that the Georgian flag will always fly over Tbilisi and Georgia,” said Tbilisi city council head Zaal Samadashvili.

Georgians are struggling to define their relationship with Russia and Russian society. Their deep historical and cultural ties have been marred by political hostility and war since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Red Army invaded Georgia on February 25, 1921, ending its brief independence and starting 70 years of Soviet rule.

Thousands of Russian troops are now again based in tiny South Ossetia and the lush Black Sea region of Abkhazia, which threw off Tbilisi’s rule in the early 1990s and were recognized by Moscow as independent states after the war last August.

Russia says its troops are there at the request of the separatists to protect them from Georgian aggression, and that it was forced to intervene to protect civilians after months of skirmishes and Georgian accusations of Russian provocation.
In Wednesday’s protest, Georgian cable providers took Russian cable channels and their popular diet of soap operas and films off the air, and radio stations heeded calls to stop playing Russian music.

The protest was due to last one day, although the main Russian news channels have been blocked since the war.

“I read a lot of Russian books and literature, but I now regret it, because of their aggression toward us,” said Nino Shengelia, a 52-year-old teacher who supported the decision.

In a public vote last week, Georgians chose a disco song that takes a thinly-veiled swipe at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the country’s entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

Led by President Mikheil Saakashvili since the 2003 “Rose Revolution,” the country of 4.5 million people has set its sights on Western integration and NATO membership, angering its former Soviet master.

Georgians say their anger is directed at the Kremlin and its policies toward Georgia, not at Russian people.

(Writing by Matt Robinson; editing by Timothy Heritage)

Russia proposes NATO talks on Georgia to ease ties

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h6swVCYYob688LnrNjdaUHIq7FIw
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Russia is ready to discuss its war in Georgia to help unblock ties with NATO but alliance nations are divided over resuming formal talks and no de-freeze is likely before April, diplomats said Thursday.

The war in early August brought NATO-Russia tensions to a head, especially Moscow’s decision to recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and its plans to base troops there.

“We are proposing a special session of the NATO-Russia Council on the Caucasus,” Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin told AFP, a day after he made the proposal to alliance ambassadors in Brussels.

“The only condition is that this meeting happen in the presence of a representative of the Russian chiefs of staff, so we can explain our view of the events that led to the conflict with Georgia in August,” he said.

Rogozin said the meeting could also focus on “our project to install bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” the breakaway Georgian regions which Russia has recognised, to widespread western condemnation.

Official high-level talks between NATO and Russia have been frozen since Moscow sent its troops into Georgia last August, but resumed informally in December.

A NATO spokeswoman declined to say whether the alliance, whose foreign ministers will discuss the issue in Brussels on March 5 with new US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton present, would accept the proposal.

“We speak about Georgia at all our meetings. The allies expressed (Wednesday) their concern about the bases that Moscow wants to install” in the breakaway Georgian regions, she said.

According to diplomats, several nations want to resume formal meetings of the so-called NATO-Russia Council, which meets routinely among ambassadors, but also at ministerial and head of state and government level.

France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Spain maintain that the sanction against Russia is counter-productive and have called for a resumption of official ties for months.

Britain came around to that position at the end of last year.

One diplomat said that NATO “must ask what it has to win by isolating itself”, when the European Union — which has 21 members in common with the alliance — relaunched partnership talks with Moscow in November.

Were NATO to decide next week to unblock ties, Clinton could use that momentum on March 6 in Geneva, where she is set to hold talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

But several eastern European countries — notably the Czech Republic — and Canada, which has a big Georgian community, refuse any early return to normal relations.

In preparing to set up bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, they believe, Russia has crossed an important red line.

“Because of the Russian bases, the allies are not going to be able to re-engage and launch the dialogue this time around,” another diplomat said.

“They would prefer to wait until the summit,” in Strasbourg, northern France and the neighbouring German city of Kehl on April 2-3, he said.

Much will depend, as usual at NATO, on the position of the United States, the biggest and most powerful of the allies.

“It seems that the United States wants to send positive messages to everyone, to Russia as well as Ukraine and Georgia,” which are both trying to join NATO, an alliance official said.

Senior US diplomat sees Georgia talks at risk

By FRANK JORDANS
updated 2:57 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2009

GENEVA – Talks on improving security in Georgia and its breakaway regions risk failure unless the question of independence for Abkhazia and South Ossetia can be put on hold, a U.S. official said Monday.

Russian and Georgian peace negotiators meeting in Geneva last week for the fourth time since their war last summer agreed on a nonbinding proposal for international observers to regularly discuss ways to diffuse tensions, but accomplished little else.

Matthew J. Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said the United States considers Russia’s refusal to withdraw troops to prewar positions a violation of the Aug. 12 cease-fire agreement. Bryza said the U.S. has no intention of changing its stance on Georgia’s territorial integrity.
But a solution needs to be found that allows Russia and Georgia to address security questions without being seen to give ground on the status of the two separatist republics, Bryza told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Washington.

The border between Georgia and South Ossetia remains tense, with both sides citing numerous attacks in recent months.

One solution would be “using constructive ambiguity to avoid compelling Russia or the international community to violate any of their red lines,” Bryza said in a telephone interview from Washington.

Russia insists that international monitors only be allowed to enter South Ossetia with the permission of the separatist government there – a requirement that would effectively recognize South Ossetia’s independence. Georgia has said it will not sign an agreement with the Russia-backed government that could imply it is giving up any of its territory.

Russia refused to set a date for the next round of security talks in Geneva, even though two international monitoring missions to Abkhazia and South Ossetia are due to expire on June 15 and June 30 respectively.

Bryza said the Geneva meetings should resume as soon as possible.

“We should be meeting once a month or even more often,” he said.
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