Published: August 20, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Crossfire War - Abkhazia Begins Maneuvers in North Caucasus
By Willard Payne
Crossfire War - Moscow - Sukhumi - Tskhinvili Watch - South Caucasus Theatre: Moscow - Berlin - Washington - Baku - Yerevan - Tskhinvili - Sukhumi/Tbilisi - Ankara - Tehran; Abkhazia Conducts Maneuvers This Week in Preparation to End Military Standoff with Georgia in Kodori Gorge
Night Watch: SUKHUMI - Moscow is completing preparations to end the military standoff in the Kodori Gorge between Abkhazia and Georgia, by having the Abkhazia government in Sukhumi conduct week long maneuvers. RIA reports Abkhazia Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Zaitsev announced four brigades, two reserve regiments and 12 military units are taking part.
Abkhazia seceded from Georgia at the end of the Cold War in 1990 and after a three year war declared its independence in 1993, supported by Moscow as Georgia was led by a fiercely anti-Russian leadership, a leadership Ankara-Tehran find useful as they attempt to keep the industrialized world from having complete access to the oil and gas in the Black and Caspian Sea region.
This crossroads of energy pipelines is the decisive theatre of the war, the only one where Iran can be threatened directly. That is why Moscow-Washington announced joint use of the radar station in Azerbaijan and why former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger was sent to Moscow four months ago to co-chair the Strategic Working Group with former Russia Premier Yevgeny Primakov. [RIA]
Conflict with the Georgia government in Tbilisi was delayed as Moscow had to concentrate on the war in the North Caucasus, which exploded in Chechnya December 1994 against Islamic Jihad groups then Daghestan further east and along the Caspian in August 1999, units that are supported by Ankara-Tehran.
Night Watch Information Service
http://www.crossfirewar.com
8/20/2007
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