Abkhazia news
I hadn’t heard of it either, but Abkhazia is a breakaway republic of Georgia, the much better known former Soviet republic. Abkhazian air defense forces say they shot down an unmaned Georgian spy plane today, and that it wasn’t the first time Georgia had violated Abkhazian airspace. Georgia, however, denies the incident took place.
Abkhazia’s sovereignty hasn’t been recognized internationally since it declared independence in 1994 amid calls to dissociate itself from Georgia and focus instead on closer ties with Russia. Which brings us to related news from the US, where the state department Friday urged Russia not to move forward with plans to work more closely with the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which would only heighten tensions between Russia and Georgia.
Looking for help from NATO and the EU, Georgian Vice Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze made haste to Brussels Friday. Russia had “crossed the red line” and “Europe and the Atlantic community must react,” he said. “We request the international community’s support in order not to let Russia legalize the de facto annexation of these territories.”
It seems the EU, NATO and, to a certain extent, the US could be kept busy for all of eternity sorting out the breaking-away-from-breakaway republics in the region.