Commenting earlier this week on the possibility of Russia joining the World Trade Organization, House Speaker John Boehner said during a Heritage Foundation speech: Nothing doing, unless Russia ends its violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity. Boehner traded barbs with the Obama administration over the issue:
Boehner said there have been “alarming reports” of the Obama administration pressuring Georgia to accept Russian boundaries set after their 2008 war.
The White House disputed Boehner’s criticism, with spokesman Tommy Vietor arguing that the administration “remains unwavering in its commitment to Georgia’s territorial integrity. We have made clear, both in private channels and in public statements, that the United States will not support Russia’s WTO accession until Russia and Georgia reach agreement on their outstanding trade-related issues.”
In August 2008, Georgian troops tried unsuccessfully to regain control over the Moscow-backed rebel province of South Ossetia. Russia sent troops that routed the Georgian military in five days. Georgia entirely lost control of both South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia.
In Russia on Tuesday, President Dmitry Medvedev’s economic adviser said Moscow will never meet Georgia’s demands. Georgia alleges that the two regions that split off in the war are occupied territory used as staging points for Russian terrorist incursions.
“We have not completed the talks with Georgia,” said Arkady Dvorkovich, according to the Interfax news agency. “The demands put forward by our neighbors do not concern the demands of the WTO but concern something completely different, something we cannot and never will be able to meet.”
Look again at the White House statement from Vietor. Was Russia’s incursion into Georgian territory a “trade-related issue”?
The President has pledged his support for Georgia, and promises US troops will not be used to repeat the events of the 1860's. "We support Georiga," the President's spokesman said, "And wish to repeat we will not let Atlanta fall again."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSeriously it is trade related. Georgia wants their border, which means the border that both Abkhazia and South Ossetia share with Russia, to be monitored by international and therefore neutral observers. This would allow Georgia to actually know what is coming into their country. Russia in return has only offered to send on verifiable reports on what is passing into the two occupied regions. Russia pretends the two regions are independent countries and therefore won't give the Georgians the right to have observers on the border.
However the State budget of South of Ossetia gets 99% of its income from the Russia government! Both regions have lost 75% of their pre war populations to ethnic cleansing and economic refugees. Abkhazia is afraid to even allow pro-Russian exiles to return because they would then be outnumbered by ethnic Georgians in their "country" and South Ossetia has 25,000 or fewer people in it and is run like one large mafia clan.
Georgia has not raised the possibility to getting its terriotry back or any political concessions at all. They simply desire to know what is coming in and going out of their country. Since the KGB and the Russian Army launder money and illegal goods through these two quasi states I do believe that Russia will sacrifice WTO membership for the sake of keeping everyone in the dark about what goes on in their occupied territories. If the people who hate Israel for occupying the West Bank were even a little bit consistent they would be completely outraged at Russia as well.
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