President of Abkhazia Sergey Bagabsh has recently returned from his visit to Moscow. The primary aim of his 6-day visit was the discussion of the issue of re-activation of the railroad. Sukhumi journalists note that on his return from Moscow, Bagabsh started talking about the perspectives of opening the railroad even more optimistically. The Abkhazian leader does not exclude the possibility of signing a document which will enable to make the first important step towards the solution of the problem. The behavior of Georgian leaders also gives grounds for optimism. They are starting to pay more and more attention to the problem and this provokes resistance of certain forces that are trying to achieve the failure of negotiations on the issue of opening the through railroad communication via Abkhazia.
There is information that those forces are supported by Georgian oligarchs whose businesses are connected with the activity of ports. It is quite obvious that with the opening of the road passing through Sukhumi Georgian oligarchs will lose huge sums of money which they receive thanks to the control over the infrastructure of Batumi and Poti ports. The conflict of interests between railway men and sea cargo transportation companies is already going too far. In order to protect their corporative interests “seamen” are creating a wide lobbyist front involving non-governmental organizations and political figures. In Tbilisi they are trying to organize a social movement against opening of the railroad that conceals the real aims of the customers with the anxiety about the future of the restless autonomy. However no one has brought clear arguments to prove that the opening of Transcaucasian road will do harm to the negotiations on Abkhazian problem settlement.
The first protest action against the concessions of Georgian authorities in the issue of opening the railroad was organized in Tbilisi by the representatives of the so-called “Internet community” that became famous in autumn for the “laser show” at the walls of the Russian embassy. This time they managed without laser. The members of “Abkhazeti” organization also protest with posters and petitions demanding from the president to stop any negotiations on the opening of Abkhazian road. The leaders of the so-called “Abkhazian government in exile” speaking on behalf of the immigrated Georgian community of the former autonomy act in the same style.
Meanwhile, the Georgian press and the politicians do not mention about the positive consequences of the opening of Transcaucasian railroad. Georgian press has only reported in brief about the results of the research of independent experts who have come to the conclusion that Georgia annually loses 500-600 million dollars because of the absence of through communication with Russia. Thanks to the Abkhazian road the businessmen and the state budget would be able to save the money that they currently pay to Azerbaijan for cargo transit. Azerbaijan is the only party that really benefits by the closed barrier at the Inguri river.
So why it is not spoken of aloud in Tbilisi? Why do the Georgian citizens and the representatives of political elite have the impression that the leaders of the country agree to hold negotiations on restarting communication through Abkhazia only to help neighboring Armenia to get out of the transport blockade? Here very typical is the opinion expressed by one of the leaders of “New rights” parliamentary fraction Pikry Chikhradze. In one of his interviews the deputy said, “The road is necessary not for us, but for our neighbor – Armenia. Of course we have friendly relations with Armenia, we are partner countries, but we have an unsettled conflict. I don’t think that for us Armenians would make any concession in the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh ” The wish of the parliamentarian to maintain partnership with Armenia is praiseworthy but who has asked him to sacrifice national interests for the sake of economic interests of neighbors? It seems everyone will benefit if the political leadership of Georgia finally makes out priorities and answers to the question whether it is more important to save hundreds of millions or to live with the illusion that the one-sided blockade of Abkhazia will one day bring to its return to united Georgia?
