| Russia and Georgia’s foreign relation at stake |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Wednesday, 21 February 2007 | |
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Officials in Tblisi confirmed that Oleg Khintsagov was arrested in an operation last year as he tried to sell 100 grams of 90 per cent-enriched uranium. Khintsagov, who comes from the province of North Ossetia in southern Russia, tried to sell the uranium for a million dollars. He was sentenced to eight years prison in June and three Georgian nationals were also arrested in the operation. The Georgian authorities say they have not established the origin of the uranium but indicated that the trail may lead to Siberia, home to many nuclear facilities and vast stockpiles of radioactive material. Moscow on the other hand insisted that the amount of uranium found on the suspect was not enough to determine the source. Russia reportedly informed Georgia that this issue should have been resolved by experts. Russia also asked the US energy department to help them in getting a measure from the Georgian side that would be sufficient for spectral analysis, which would allow to determine the source of this uranium. However, a document reportedly seen by the Reuters news agency indicates that the uranium found in Khintsagov’s pockets may have been obtained from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. Relations between Russia and Georgia have been strained over the past years. The relation has been tensed after the ‘November 2003 Rose Revolution’ in Georgia, which brought the pro-Western reformist leader Mikheil Saakashvili to power. Russia has been accused of actively trying to undermine the Georgian positions by backing separatists in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia in 2005 accused Russia with involvment in the death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. In September 2006, Russia cut all travel links with the former Soviet republic in retaliation for detaining four of its military officers for espionage. Moscow refused international pressure to lift the suspension of road, rail, air, maritime and postal links, saying Tbilisi deeply insulted it by arresting the officers. Georgia later released the officers. Moscow’s analysts and officials said that Georgia's decision to go public with the incident a year after Khintsagov's arrest was a public relations ploy to discredit Russia. Anton Khlopkov, the deputy director of the Centre for Policy Studies in Moscow, said "The attempt by Georgia to earn some political mileage from this case will provoke serious irritation." Georgia's Prime Minister, Zurab Nogaideli denied that there was any political motive behind Tbilisi's actions. "This is a very complicated and dangerous issue and it needs co-operation between countries and first of all between Georgia and Russia”, Nogaideli said on January 26th. ”We expect co-operation with Russia and are not trying to make this issue political", he added Both the countries should realize the positive outcome they can achieve by having a healthy relation among them despite the current political mishap. Around 1,000,000 Georgians reside in Russia as foreign workers and Russia is one of the most important Georgian trade partners, responsible for around 15% of total Georgian foreign trade. -End- Share & Bookmark             |
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