STEALTH ANNEXATION: Moscow moves to absorb rebel Georgian region’s military.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered his officials to seal an agreement which will, in effect, incorporate the armed forces of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region into the Russian military’s command structure.
Georgia condemned the move, which is likely to spark accusations from its Western allies that the Kremlin is absorbing the breakaway region into Russia by stealth, even though under international law it is part of Georgia’s sovereign territory.
Moscow has de facto controlled South Ossetia, a sliver of mainly mountainous land in the northeast of Georgia, for years. But it has, on paper at least, treated South Ossetia as a separate state, not part of Russia.
According to the text of the draft agreement that Putin ordered his officials to conclude, the separatists will adopt new operating procedures for their armed forces which will be subject to approval by Moscow, and the forces’ structure and objectives will be determined in agreement with Russia.
FLASHBACK: Russia Keeps Moving Border With Georgia.
The border of Russia-controlled South Ossetia continues to encroach on the Georgian village, displacing residents who once had a home in Jariasheni but who now would be arrested for trespassing if they tried to enter it.
“Russia starts right here,” one resident told the Times. “But who knows where Russia will start tomorrow or the next day.”
The new border is sometimes noted by newly-installed barbed wire or a “state border” sign that has moved.
It’s unclear what Russia’s motive or end game is, but the Times reports the Russian seem intent on restoring borders to match a 1980s era Soviet Union map.
Since Putin is on record saying that the dissolution of the Soviet Union “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” and has since waged war on Ukraine and Georgia, annexed Crimea, threatened the Baltics, and is now encroaching farther into Georgia, it should be perfectly clear what his end game is.