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Russia, Georgia Reopen Vital Border Crossing

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  • Russia, Georgia Reopen Vital Border Crossing

    RUSSIA, GEORGIA REOPEN VITAL BORDER CROSSING
    By Michael Mainville (AFP)

    Agence France Presse
    March 1 2010

    DARIAL GORGE, Georgia -- Bitter regional rivals Georgia and Russia
    reopened their only usable land border crossing on Monday, restoring
    a vital transport route that had been closed since 2006.

    The reopening of the crossing -- known as Verkhny Lars in Russia and
    Darial Gorge in Georgia -- is expected primarily to benefit Armenia,
    which had relied on it for trade with Russia, its key economic partner.

    The crossing reopened at 7:00 am (0300 GMT) with a brief pre-dawn
    ceremony. Afterwards, border police sat in roadside booths waiting
    for travellers but none arrived.

    Over nine hours after it opened, not a single person had crossed
    through the checkpoint, local deputy customs chief Zurab Sokhadze
    told AFP, with the lack of travellers apparently due to the visa
    regime between the states.

    The checkpoint runs through a narrow pass in the Caucasus Mountains,
    about 170 kilometres (105 miles) from the Georgian capital Tbilisi,
    amid craggy snow-covered peaks.

    It is the only land border crossing that does not pass through
    Georgia's Russian-backed rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
    which were the focus of the 2008 Georgia-Russia war.

    Moscow and Tbilisi late last year reached a deal under Swiss and
    Armenian mediation to reopen the checkpoint.

    Georgian deputy foreign minister Nino Kalandadze said that the opening
    "does not mean warming" in ties with Moscow and that Georgia's consent
    "was motivated exclusively by our will to give a helping hand to our
    neighbour Armenia."

    "The opening of the crossing will not have significant economic or
    political consequences for Georgia," Kalandadze said.

    "But it is a positive fact that the differences between Georgia and
    Russia did not impede the opening."

    An EU official expressed hope that the opening bodes well for regional
    stability.

    "If a border is closed, there is no interaction, period. With the
    border open, there is discussion, and that's important," said Robin
    Liddell, a member of an EU delegation that visited the Georgian
    checkpoint on Monday.

    A spokesman for Russian border guards, Alexander Solod, confirmed
    that the corresponding checkpoint on the Russian side had opened,
    the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

    The crossing will be open to citizens of countries of the Commonwealth
    of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of ex-Soviet states, as long
    as they do not require visas for either Russia or Georgia.

    Georgian and Russian citizens will need visas, which they can obtain
    from the respective Swiss embassies in Tbilisi and Moscow, where the
    two countries maintain interest sections.

    In Stepantsminda, a small Georgian town near the border, residents
    said the opening would make no difference to their lives due to the
    visa restrictions.

    "It does not do us any good. We can't go without visas.... This has
    nothing to do with us, they are only doing this for Armenia," local
    resident Tina Gujaraidze, 53, told AFP.

    Russia closed the checkpoint in July 2006 in a move Georgian
    officials said was motivated by tensions over Tbilisi's efforts to
    build closer ties with the West. Moscow has said the crossing was
    closed for repairs.

    The two ex-Soviet neighbours fought a brief war in August 2008 over
    South Ossetia and tensions have been high between them ever since.

    Armenia's borders with its neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey have been
    closed for years and the small South Caucasus country is dependent
    on trade with Russia.

    Russia also cut air links with Georgia during the 2008 war. Several
    charter flights were allowed to operate between the two countries in
    January, but full air links have not yet been restored.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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