Exactly 15 years ago, as President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev read out a decree recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
And yesterday, his standing in the eyes of Abkhazians dramatically dropped to zero.
It is all about two short sentences from an article by Medvedev, now Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, timed to mark the 15th anniversary of the war in South Ossetia:
In Abkhazia and South Ossetia the idea of joining Russia is still popular. And it may well be realized if there are good reasons for it.
The Abkhazian public was shocked by this statement.
But I have absolutely no complaints about Medvedev. Although in the morning I was in a completely different mood. But after the entire Abkhazian authorities spent the whole day wrinkling their nose as if trying to remember who Medvedev was and frankly avoided comments, everything became more or less clear.
In the late afternoon, the Secretary of the Security Council of Abkhazia Sergei Shamba tried to save the situation by saying that there are no political forces in the republic that would declare a desire to join the Russian Federation. And although Shamba is an official, but given that he is one of those who stood at the origins of Abkhazian statehood, he could not say otherwise.
And he could not keep silent either. To me, his words looked like some private position, a “dissenting opinion” that does not quite coincide with the position of the government as such.
Shamba is indeed a “black sheep” in the current government team. Even with all my criticism of some of his views, he is the only one from the entourage of the current President Aslan Bzhania who honestly positions himself as a politician of an independent state.
All the others behave like ordinary provincial bosses of some subsidised region of Russia, and are not even particularly ashamed of it.
The status of an independent state is clearly a burden for them. One president declares his readiness to share sovereignty. Then some ministers claim that it is impossible to solve existing problems on their own, without support from outside. Then others with accounting meticulousness begin to quote figures of Russian billions spent on Abkhazia, without saying a word about what the republic gave in return.
Dmitry Medvedev is quite an informed person not to allow himself to make bloopers on the Abkhazian topic. And when he talks about popularity of the idea of joining Russia among Abkhazians, he is absolutely sincere.
He really thinks so. Of course, he does not communicate with ordinary citizens, but for many years he periodically meets with representatives of the Abkhazian authorities and sees how they behave.
And I repeat, they behave like ordinary provincial authorities. They say, give more money and in return we will fulfil your every whim. To become part of Russia, you say? Yes, please, no problem.
In general, Dmitry Medvedev clearly has nothing to do with this.
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