Alexander Roslyakov. Abkhazia: from love to hate
From love to hate is one step, and between Abkhazia and Russia, he seems to have already been taken. At least the slogans “Abkhazia for Abkhazians!”, On the one hand, and “Stop feeding Abkhazia!”, On the other, unbelievable 10 years ago, when it seemed that we had love to the grave, sounded. And in order to understand whether you can somehow step back, you need to look into history our post-Soviet relations.
First blood
The first clashes on a national basis - between Abkhazians and Georgians - occurred in Abkhazia 1989, Moscow then led troops to the Interior Ministry. With a total population of 550, thousands of people lived there, 75 thousands of Russians, whom the Georgians declared invaders - which led them to the Abkhaz side before the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-93. And with its beginning, many Russians went to fight for the Abkhaz, even headed the military units (Y. Voronov - military commissar, member of the Ardzinba headquarters; G. Nikitchenko - deputy commander of the Eastern Front; V. Antsupov - commander of the reconnaissance detachment).
After the war, up to a third of the Russians left Abkhazia, which was destroyed deeply, but the rest were actively involved in its restoration. Created by Voronov and Nikitchenko, the Congress of Russian Communities, which included 30 thousands of people, became the main link with Russia. The Russians were elected to the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia and local councils, in their communities were people of different nations, including the Abkhaz. The Congress Council included leaders of the Estonian, Polish and Greek communities, humanitarian aid was also distributed there to everyone, and the relations between the Abkhaz and the Russians were still fraternal.
But in the 1996 year, under pressure from the West, Russia imposed a blockade on Abkhazia, which most of all struck local Russians, who became hostages of bad Russian politics. The barely restored ties with the “big land” broke, unemployment jumped, someone went to labor on the lands of the Abkhaz and Armenians. From here, the seizures of Russian dwellings, who traveled to Russia for work or medical treatment, originate, and the first anti-Russian outbursts: that Yeltsin handed over the armament of the Trans-Caucasus military to Georgia, allowed its aggression, etc.
At the same time, emissaries of the West and Turkey became active in Abkhazia. The foundations of Soros, Marshall, and Boll are set up there before 40, non-governmental organizations (NGOs): Center for Humanitarian Programs, Civil Initiative and the Man of the Future, and others. The West takes on the part of the Abkhaz officials and the unemployed Abkhaz intelligentsia. All this takes up to 3 million dollars a year.
Turkey acted through the descendants of the mahajirs - the Abkhaz who emigrated there in the 19 century, the International Circassian and Abkhaz-Abaza associations. Basharan College opened in Gagra, in which boys from the best Abkhazian families were brought up in the spirit of the Great Turan - the coming union of Turkic peoples. The first Muslim communities appear in Abkhazia; Visitors from Turkey and local nationalists distribute maps of the Great Turan, including Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus, the Crimea, Bashkiria and Tatarstan.
Cash Russia
In 1998, the beginning of the extradition of Russian citizenship in Abkhazia, achieved by the heroic work of the head of the Congress of Russian Communities Nikitchenko, became a ray of hope for the Russian community. And when in 2002 he achieved this for everyone, Abkhazia danced with delight and swore eternal love for Russia. The Congress of Russian Communities then issued the passports of the Russian Federation to the overwhelming majority of adult citizens of the RA; Russian pensions began to be paid there, for which 32 thousands of its inhabitants still exist.
The actual opening of the border with Russia revived the economy, there was a need for Russian specialists. The authorities of Abkhazia have forbidden to occupy Russian housing - although its hidden seizure continued. The activities of pro-Western NGOs outwardly became less noticeable, but their funding increased to 4-5 million euros per year.
Anti-Russian outbursts began to appear periodically, more often under elections, sometimes because of bad Russian actions - as if an unsuccessful attempt to hold Khajimba for RA presidency in 2004. The Abkhaz tops mastered the tactics of duplicity: bowing to Russia for the sake of squeezing money out of it, gradually inflamed hostility towards it among the national intelligentsia and youth. In the end, they removed almost all Russians from power; tried to destroy the Congress of Russian communities, which did so much for Abkhazia. Members of his board were inclined to divide into local communities, with the same purpose of fragmentation, an alternative Association of Russian Communities of Abkhazia was created.
And as a result of the unprecedented rebirth in the post-Soviet field, for the Russian expense of Abkhazia, which has broken all records in the number of pretentious cars, it has increasingly turned its back on Russia. Abkhazian historians, to match the Georgian, undertook to rewrite the history of Abkhazia in terms of its oppression by the Russian Empire and the genocide of the Abkhazians. The idea of a multi-polar foreign policy is being introduced - the entry of Abkhazia into NATO in conjunction with Georgia and the resettlement from Turkey of 400 thousands of "blood brothers" to solve a demographic problem.
At the same time, the Russian community is harder to breathe - which is the fault of the Russian authorities and the careless attitude to it. And at the same time they lack a coherent policy towards Abkhazia: assurances of friendship and assistance - and at the same time statements about the territorial integrity of Georgia. In the eyes of the Abkhazians, all this forms the image of Russia as loose, unable to defend its interests and fellow citizens of a dairy cow, with whom there is nothing to reckon with.
Sliced chunk
Russia's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia in 2008 was there in two ways: with a surge of gratitude to us - and a new, victorious nationalism. But thanksgiving quickly evaporated, and already in the RA presidential elections in 2009, the Abkhaz province went to write in its media: “Russians occupied Abkhazia”, “Russians destroy our nature”, etc. The expense of seizing Russian housing went hundreds; The most illustrative was the court for the eviction of the Hero of Abkhazia Gennady Nikitchenko from his home, where the office of the Congress of Russian Communities also lived.
In general, Abkhazia has comprehended a split in the attitude of Russia. Loyalty to her now feed the recipients of Russian pensions; those whose children study or work in Russia; who is included in the resort business and the restoration program of Abkhazia at the Russian expense. Opponents - politicians gaining popularity on the anti-Russian field; NGO activists, receiving from the West up to 10 million euros per year; Islamists and supporters of the repatriation of the mahajirs.
The sharp stratification of Abkhaz society into rich and poor, envy of those allowed to the “Russian feeder” - also poured out against Russia. She de-feeds the elect and is to blame for Abkhazian corruption, since her inspectors always cover the local elite. The tradition of our officials to marry meetings with her drunk causes condemnation and disgust among local residents. The actions in Abkhazia of such Russian structures as the Ministry of Defense or "Rosneft" even its Parliament often learns after the fact, almost from the Internet. This is perceived painfully - and adds anti-Russian arguments to increasingly active Western, Turkish and Georgian special services.
All this speaks badly on the Russian community, which, with the huge Russian inflows of recent years in Abkhazia, was reduced to 25 thousands. She, apart from, say, Armenian with her diaspora solidarity, still lives looking back at her “big motherland”: she waits for her to give her a helping hand. But it seems that for Russia these people, who have left behind their will not over their will, are a cut off chunk!
Ambassador playing guitar
The Russian ambassador to Abkhazia, Semyon Grigoriev, participates in all official and even private events of the Abkhaz, loves to sing with a guitar, which he likes the local elite. But he doesn’t do anything to protect the local Russians, his participation in the commission for the return of illegally taken housing gave zero result.
Support for Russian business is also zero. He pushes routine speeches on economic topics - and he did not react to the loud capture of the trading company of the Russian entrepreneur Igor Varov. Varov went to court, for which he was severely beaten by “unidentified persons” - according to rumors, by the guards of the RA President. But this did not make the ambassador show proper solidarity with the tribesman.
For the sake of the local authorities, he ignores the Congress of Russian Communities, besieging it with protests for lawlessness against the Russians. Communicates only with the blow of the “Association of Russian Communities”, consisting of some of the founders who feed from the same power.
The Russian representatives arriving in Abkhazia can see that they are barely aware of its problems, which is why their talks often come down to raising the toasts that Abkhazians love. It is not real information that leaves the “guitar” ambassador to Moscow, but only convenient local leaders, on the basis of which the right decisions cannot be made. To work with the Russian community of Abkhazia, a local branch of Rossotrudnichestvo was created, but it was also subordinate to the ambassador, following his example, reduced all his activities to draining the same toasts.
Toadstool nationalism
After Abkhazia gained “Russian independence”, Abkhazians, 25 percent of the population, seized almost all power in a multinational republic. Formerly in the elections, 35 deputies to its Parliament had quotas: 80 thousand Armenians - 3 seats; 70 thousand Georgians - 2; 25 thousand Russian - 3; 1 thousand repatriate Turks - 2; 60 thousand Abkhazians - 25. All signs of ethnocratic order. But in the last election, these quotas were gone, and not a single Russian deputy passed.
Yes, Abkhaz nationalism is largely a defensive reaction of a small nation in the face of the threat of its extinction. But blind and often disinterested, with a dashing recoil, the issuance of Russian money to Abkhaz leaders encourages their contempt for other nations. Even the majority of Armenians united among themselves turned out to be driven into the villages of Abkhazia and to the lower levels of the social ladder, with minimal chances of moving along it. Russian and these chances do not have. Returning to the Gali district, the Georgian refugees live there for the most part without citizenship, without voting rights and pensions.
The Abkhaz leaders, who had risen at the Russian expense, began to save their ethnos not by feeding indigenous rural labor, but by expelling the official spheres of the Russian language. In Abkhazia, laws have been adopted that reinforce the principle of ethnocracy: “On the state language”, “On citizenship”, “On property” and others like them.
But for the Abkhaz, all this is not salvation and not a solution to their problems, including religious ones. Abkhazia is one of the most ancient Christian countries, but today, on the pro-Turkish wave, the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims is becoming more and more powerful. Their chapels are already open all around, they require a place in the center of Sukhum for a mosque, for which Kadyrov allegedly gives money. And the Christian community is split with the help of the RA government by the monks of the New Athos monastery: they want autocephaly, asserting that the ROC, always standing behind Abkhazia, wants to surrender it to the Georgian church. Ordinary parishioners do not understand the essence of this split, only being amazed at the growth of Muslim influence.
In order to rebuild Abkhazia, a young and skilled labor force is needed, specialists in construction. But Abkhazian academicians and doctors of Abkhaz studies became without a number, and there are almost no people capable of putting a stone on a stone. Russia invites Abkhaz youth to their technical colleges, but she does not want to go there, give her something that will let her live with the wind and without difficulty. With unemployment for 50 percent here, even for simple construction work you have to call on Tajiks and Kyrgyz; for modern Abkhaz any work is a shame!
Therefore, drug addiction, theft and robbery are becoming a way of life for the greater part of the youth - which further aggravates the demographic problem that is painful for the Abkhaz. Proud Abkhazians do not want to give birth from drug addicts and thieves, and the absence of a real national idea threatens the few Abkhazians with complete extinction.
All this is discussed in the local media, but the matter does not go beyond the favorite conversations of Abkhazians. The Abkhazian authorities simply walk away from these unpleasant realities.
At the level of mind and heart
Abkhazia, which has suffered a brutal war, blockade and no less severe freedom from which blood has foamed over the past 20 years, is today deeply ill and hardly able to cope with its problems. The hardest thing left in it for the care of Soviet civilization is the clan basis of society, which excludes all responsibility of “its own” for any iniquities. For an Abkhaz official of any level, the interests of his clan are above all, and therefore any funds for development, issued “by hand”, go only to his clan. Only the “strong hand” is worshiped here, and when Russia represented this force, it was perceived with admiration; when she lost her, betraying her fellow tribesmen, she was despised, despite all her gifts.
The congress of the Russian communities of Abkhazia, which shared the last piece of bread with it during the famine years, addressed the Russian authorities in connection with all the above. I asked him to fully support the Russian diaspora, to return to her the role of a stabilizer and guide of Russian interests. To appoint a representative for human rights in the Republic of Armenia, not to ignore a single crime against the Russians. To build a conscious political line on the Abkhaz direction, stopping the practice when one hand does not know what the other is doing.
In response, Russia appointed the Krasnodar governor Tkachev as its special representative in Abkhazia - which not everyone liked, but was at least some step in the right direction. So far this is just a declarative step; the whole question is whether it will be filled with real content, good for Russia and its nonetheless conscious at the level of the mind and heart of an ally of Abkhazia.
First blood
The first clashes on a national basis - between Abkhazians and Georgians - occurred in Abkhazia 1989, Moscow then led troops to the Interior Ministry. With a total population of 550, thousands of people lived there, 75 thousands of Russians, whom the Georgians declared invaders - which led them to the Abkhaz side before the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-93. And with its beginning, many Russians went to fight for the Abkhaz, even headed the military units (Y. Voronov - military commissar, member of the Ardzinba headquarters; G. Nikitchenko - deputy commander of the Eastern Front; V. Antsupov - commander of the reconnaissance detachment).
After the war, up to a third of the Russians left Abkhazia, which was destroyed deeply, but the rest were actively involved in its restoration. Created by Voronov and Nikitchenko, the Congress of Russian Communities, which included 30 thousands of people, became the main link with Russia. The Russians were elected to the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia and local councils, in their communities were people of different nations, including the Abkhaz. The Congress Council included leaders of the Estonian, Polish and Greek communities, humanitarian aid was also distributed there to everyone, and the relations between the Abkhaz and the Russians were still fraternal.
But in the 1996 year, under pressure from the West, Russia imposed a blockade on Abkhazia, which most of all struck local Russians, who became hostages of bad Russian politics. The barely restored ties with the “big land” broke, unemployment jumped, someone went to labor on the lands of the Abkhaz and Armenians. From here, the seizures of Russian dwellings, who traveled to Russia for work or medical treatment, originate, and the first anti-Russian outbursts: that Yeltsin handed over the armament of the Trans-Caucasus military to Georgia, allowed its aggression, etc.
At the same time, emissaries of the West and Turkey became active in Abkhazia. The foundations of Soros, Marshall, and Boll are set up there before 40, non-governmental organizations (NGOs): Center for Humanitarian Programs, Civil Initiative and the Man of the Future, and others. The West takes on the part of the Abkhaz officials and the unemployed Abkhaz intelligentsia. All this takes up to 3 million dollars a year.
Turkey acted through the descendants of the mahajirs - the Abkhaz who emigrated there in the 19 century, the International Circassian and Abkhaz-Abaza associations. Basharan College opened in Gagra, in which boys from the best Abkhazian families were brought up in the spirit of the Great Turan - the coming union of Turkic peoples. The first Muslim communities appear in Abkhazia; Visitors from Turkey and local nationalists distribute maps of the Great Turan, including Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus, the Crimea, Bashkiria and Tatarstan.
Cash Russia
In 1998, the beginning of the extradition of Russian citizenship in Abkhazia, achieved by the heroic work of the head of the Congress of Russian Communities Nikitchenko, became a ray of hope for the Russian community. And when in 2002 he achieved this for everyone, Abkhazia danced with delight and swore eternal love for Russia. The Congress of Russian Communities then issued the passports of the Russian Federation to the overwhelming majority of adult citizens of the RA; Russian pensions began to be paid there, for which 32 thousands of its inhabitants still exist.
The actual opening of the border with Russia revived the economy, there was a need for Russian specialists. The authorities of Abkhazia have forbidden to occupy Russian housing - although its hidden seizure continued. The activities of pro-Western NGOs outwardly became less noticeable, but their funding increased to 4-5 million euros per year.
Anti-Russian outbursts began to appear periodically, more often under elections, sometimes because of bad Russian actions - as if an unsuccessful attempt to hold Khajimba for RA presidency in 2004. The Abkhaz tops mastered the tactics of duplicity: bowing to Russia for the sake of squeezing money out of it, gradually inflamed hostility towards it among the national intelligentsia and youth. In the end, they removed almost all Russians from power; tried to destroy the Congress of Russian communities, which did so much for Abkhazia. Members of his board were inclined to divide into local communities, with the same purpose of fragmentation, an alternative Association of Russian Communities of Abkhazia was created.
And as a result of the unprecedented rebirth in the post-Soviet field, for the Russian expense of Abkhazia, which has broken all records in the number of pretentious cars, it has increasingly turned its back on Russia. Abkhazian historians, to match the Georgian, undertook to rewrite the history of Abkhazia in terms of its oppression by the Russian Empire and the genocide of the Abkhazians. The idea of a multi-polar foreign policy is being introduced - the entry of Abkhazia into NATO in conjunction with Georgia and the resettlement from Turkey of 400 thousands of "blood brothers" to solve a demographic problem.
At the same time, the Russian community is harder to breathe - which is the fault of the Russian authorities and the careless attitude to it. And at the same time they lack a coherent policy towards Abkhazia: assurances of friendship and assistance - and at the same time statements about the territorial integrity of Georgia. In the eyes of the Abkhazians, all this forms the image of Russia as loose, unable to defend its interests and fellow citizens of a dairy cow, with whom there is nothing to reckon with.
Sliced chunk
Russia's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia in 2008 was there in two ways: with a surge of gratitude to us - and a new, victorious nationalism. But thanksgiving quickly evaporated, and already in the RA presidential elections in 2009, the Abkhaz province went to write in its media: “Russians occupied Abkhazia”, “Russians destroy our nature”, etc. The expense of seizing Russian housing went hundreds; The most illustrative was the court for the eviction of the Hero of Abkhazia Gennady Nikitchenko from his home, where the office of the Congress of Russian Communities also lived.
In general, Abkhazia has comprehended a split in the attitude of Russia. Loyalty to her now feed the recipients of Russian pensions; those whose children study or work in Russia; who is included in the resort business and the restoration program of Abkhazia at the Russian expense. Opponents - politicians gaining popularity on the anti-Russian field; NGO activists, receiving from the West up to 10 million euros per year; Islamists and supporters of the repatriation of the mahajirs.
The sharp stratification of Abkhaz society into rich and poor, envy of those allowed to the “Russian feeder” - also poured out against Russia. She de-feeds the elect and is to blame for Abkhazian corruption, since her inspectors always cover the local elite. The tradition of our officials to marry meetings with her drunk causes condemnation and disgust among local residents. The actions in Abkhazia of such Russian structures as the Ministry of Defense or "Rosneft" even its Parliament often learns after the fact, almost from the Internet. This is perceived painfully - and adds anti-Russian arguments to increasingly active Western, Turkish and Georgian special services.
All this speaks badly on the Russian community, which, with the huge Russian inflows of recent years in Abkhazia, was reduced to 25 thousands. She, apart from, say, Armenian with her diaspora solidarity, still lives looking back at her “big motherland”: she waits for her to give her a helping hand. But it seems that for Russia these people, who have left behind their will not over their will, are a cut off chunk!
Ambassador playing guitar
The Russian ambassador to Abkhazia, Semyon Grigoriev, participates in all official and even private events of the Abkhaz, loves to sing with a guitar, which he likes the local elite. But he doesn’t do anything to protect the local Russians, his participation in the commission for the return of illegally taken housing gave zero result.
Support for Russian business is also zero. He pushes routine speeches on economic topics - and he did not react to the loud capture of the trading company of the Russian entrepreneur Igor Varov. Varov went to court, for which he was severely beaten by “unidentified persons” - according to rumors, by the guards of the RA President. But this did not make the ambassador show proper solidarity with the tribesman.
For the sake of the local authorities, he ignores the Congress of Russian Communities, besieging it with protests for lawlessness against the Russians. Communicates only with the blow of the “Association of Russian Communities”, consisting of some of the founders who feed from the same power.
The Russian representatives arriving in Abkhazia can see that they are barely aware of its problems, which is why their talks often come down to raising the toasts that Abkhazians love. It is not real information that leaves the “guitar” ambassador to Moscow, but only convenient local leaders, on the basis of which the right decisions cannot be made. To work with the Russian community of Abkhazia, a local branch of Rossotrudnichestvo was created, but it was also subordinate to the ambassador, following his example, reduced all his activities to draining the same toasts.
Toadstool nationalism
After Abkhazia gained “Russian independence”, Abkhazians, 25 percent of the population, seized almost all power in a multinational republic. Formerly in the elections, 35 deputies to its Parliament had quotas: 80 thousand Armenians - 3 seats; 70 thousand Georgians - 2; 25 thousand Russian - 3; 1 thousand repatriate Turks - 2; 60 thousand Abkhazians - 25. All signs of ethnocratic order. But in the last election, these quotas were gone, and not a single Russian deputy passed.
Yes, Abkhaz nationalism is largely a defensive reaction of a small nation in the face of the threat of its extinction. But blind and often disinterested, with a dashing recoil, the issuance of Russian money to Abkhaz leaders encourages their contempt for other nations. Even the majority of Armenians united among themselves turned out to be driven into the villages of Abkhazia and to the lower levels of the social ladder, with minimal chances of moving along it. Russian and these chances do not have. Returning to the Gali district, the Georgian refugees live there for the most part without citizenship, without voting rights and pensions.
The Abkhaz leaders, who had risen at the Russian expense, began to save their ethnos not by feeding indigenous rural labor, but by expelling the official spheres of the Russian language. In Abkhazia, laws have been adopted that reinforce the principle of ethnocracy: “On the state language”, “On citizenship”, “On property” and others like them.
But for the Abkhaz, all this is not salvation and not a solution to their problems, including religious ones. Abkhazia is one of the most ancient Christian countries, but today, on the pro-Turkish wave, the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims is becoming more and more powerful. Their chapels are already open all around, they require a place in the center of Sukhum for a mosque, for which Kadyrov allegedly gives money. And the Christian community is split with the help of the RA government by the monks of the New Athos monastery: they want autocephaly, asserting that the ROC, always standing behind Abkhazia, wants to surrender it to the Georgian church. Ordinary parishioners do not understand the essence of this split, only being amazed at the growth of Muslim influence.
In order to rebuild Abkhazia, a young and skilled labor force is needed, specialists in construction. But Abkhazian academicians and doctors of Abkhaz studies became without a number, and there are almost no people capable of putting a stone on a stone. Russia invites Abkhaz youth to their technical colleges, but she does not want to go there, give her something that will let her live with the wind and without difficulty. With unemployment for 50 percent here, even for simple construction work you have to call on Tajiks and Kyrgyz; for modern Abkhaz any work is a shame!
Therefore, drug addiction, theft and robbery are becoming a way of life for the greater part of the youth - which further aggravates the demographic problem that is painful for the Abkhaz. Proud Abkhazians do not want to give birth from drug addicts and thieves, and the absence of a real national idea threatens the few Abkhazians with complete extinction.
All this is discussed in the local media, but the matter does not go beyond the favorite conversations of Abkhazians. The Abkhazian authorities simply walk away from these unpleasant realities.
At the level of mind and heart
Abkhazia, which has suffered a brutal war, blockade and no less severe freedom from which blood has foamed over the past 20 years, is today deeply ill and hardly able to cope with its problems. The hardest thing left in it for the care of Soviet civilization is the clan basis of society, which excludes all responsibility of “its own” for any iniquities. For an Abkhaz official of any level, the interests of his clan are above all, and therefore any funds for development, issued “by hand”, go only to his clan. Only the “strong hand” is worshiped here, and when Russia represented this force, it was perceived with admiration; when she lost her, betraying her fellow tribesmen, she was despised, despite all her gifts.
The congress of the Russian communities of Abkhazia, which shared the last piece of bread with it during the famine years, addressed the Russian authorities in connection with all the above. I asked him to fully support the Russian diaspora, to return to her the role of a stabilizer and guide of Russian interests. To appoint a representative for human rights in the Republic of Armenia, not to ignore a single crime against the Russians. To build a conscious political line on the Abkhaz direction, stopping the practice when one hand does not know what the other is doing.
In response, Russia appointed the Krasnodar governor Tkachev as its special representative in Abkhazia - which not everyone liked, but was at least some step in the right direction. So far this is just a declarative step; the whole question is whether it will be filled with real content, good for Russia and its nonetheless conscious at the level of the mind and heart of an ally of Abkhazia.
Information