“Aravot” says the Armenian opposition’s “extremely soft position” on the Russian-Georgian war demonstrates that all major political forces in Armenia are pro-Russian. “Therefore, the official propaganda machine’s allegation that the West has a fifth column in Armenia bent on carrying out a U.S.-engineered color revolution here is baseless,” editorializes the paper.

http://www.armenialiberty.org/press/press/en/2008/08/42DBE826-97E4-4EAE-B72A-876C812D66A9.ASP

Should this move gets materialised by Kremlin, i.e. should Russian president formally recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, this could serve an important precedent for other breakaway regions in a post-Soviet space. Regardless of differences, this move would strengthen Karabakh positions in its quest for independence.

Sounds quite enthusiastic to me, and one that would be echoed by most Armenians, especially given that the majority here are pro-Russian and anti-Georgian. That’s not Artmika, of course, but I think he believes the move is an important precedent for Armenia and Karabakh. Actually, he says as much.

Armenia was grappling with its worst fuel shortages since the early 1990s on Monday despite the reported reopening of Georgia’s east-west railway that serves as the main supply line of the two South Caucasus states.

A section of that railway close to the central Georgian town of Gori was damaged by a weekend fuel train explosion which Georgian officials said was caused by a landmine. It occurred just over a week after another, powerful explosion downed a nearby rail bridge. Russia denied Georgian accusations that it was behind the attack.

The August 16 blast left the Armenian government scrambling to restore supplies of wheat, fuel and other basic commodities from the Georgian Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi which process more than 90 percent of Armenia’s external cargo turnover. The government sent a convoy of about 40 fuel trucks to collect gasoline stranded in the ports.

[…]

Meanwhile, the situation with fuel supplies only deteriorated, with the vast majority of filling stations in Yerevan resorting to severe fuel rationing on Sunday. They stopped selling petrol altogether the next morning. Only holders of prepaid corporate vouchers issued by the country’s largest station chains could buy a limited amount of petrol on Monday.

“We have run out of gas and are selling it only to company cars. This is all the information I have at this point,” said a worker at one filling station besieged by angry motorists.

“The war is in Georgia, but it’s Armenia that is in crisis,” one of them complained. “They keep saying that petrol is coming and there are no problems. But there is a problem.”

[…]

According to the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communications, the August 16 blast left a total of 178 rail cars, 108 of them loaded with wheat, stranded on Georgian railway sections west of Gori. “In all likelihood, 35 cars loaded with wheat will head to Armenia today,” a ministry spokeswoman, Susanna Tonoyan, told RFE/RL.

“Besides, we have a lot of freight in the ports of Poti and Batumi awaiting shipment,” she said. “In particular, in Poti there are two ships carrying 6,700 tons of wheat and 93 rails cars of other goods. In Batumi, we have 2,500 tons of wheat, ten cars of petrol and another one thousand tons of petrol.”

Tonoyan added that the government has also organized “intensive” fuel and wheat supplies from neighboring Iran. More than 400 tons of flour have already bee imported to Armenia through Iranian territory, she said.

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2008/08/FDC21B99-DE53-4B42-8812-6FFB194672EB.ASP

GEORGIA: RUSSIA MOVES TO RECOGNIZE SOUTH OSSETIA, ABKHAZIA

Molly Corso 8/25/08

[…]

One prominent pro-Kremlin Moscow analyst recently argued that recognition of the two regions as independent countries could allow Russia to assert itself in Georgia once again. “If the West continues to support [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili, there will be new demonstrations in South Ossetia, and the preparations for a new round of aggression will oblige us to help and protect the republic,” Sergei Markov, a political analyst and parliamentarian close to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, wrote in Moskovsky Komsomolyets on August 22. “The recognition of its independence will enable us to send our forces there.”

Western leaders have expressed no desire to ditch President Saakashvili. In arguably the most significant sign of public support to date, the White House announced on August 25 that US Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Georgia in early September. A concrete date for the trip has not yet been fixed. Cheney is widely viewed as a leading hawk in the Bush administration.

[…]

In Tbilisi, where both separatist governments are widely seen as marionettes acting at Moscow’s behest, the decision was greeted with an official shoulder shrug as if to say, “so what?” The State Ministry for Territorial Reintegration did not respond to requests from EurasiaNet for comment. In remarks to Georgian television reporters, State Minister for Territorial Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili later asserted that the decision has only further isolated Russia from the international community.

Georgian President Saakashvili has stated that having a meddlesome neighbor like Russia is simply Georgia’s “geopolitical fate.”

[…]

The separatist leaderships of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have a different take. Before the latest conflict with Georgia, Abkhaz officials described returning the ethnic Georgian population displaced by the 1992-1993 war with Georgia as a gradual process; one that first required their economy to recover from the effects of war and a 12-year-long Commonwealth of Independent States trade blockade. South Ossetian officials took a similar position, arguing that ethnic Georgians already willingly lived in their territory.

One Georgian analyst contended that Moscow would be acting impulsively, and not in its best interests, if Medvedev formally authorized the recognition of the separatist enclaves. “We should … remember it has not been in Russia’s interests to fully recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” said Giorgi Khutsishvili, director of Tbilisi’s International Center on Conflict and Resolution, citing a failed April 2008 attempt by Russia’s parliament to pass a similar recognition resolution. “[If it recognizes the break-away territories now], Russia loses some leverage in the region. Especially in Abkhazia.” With a more structurally developed economy, Abkhazia could prove a more self-assertive satellite state than South Ossetia, Khutsishvili added.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav082508.shtml