The FINANCIAL — According to Civil Georgia, Russia’s initiative to construct a new road linking its North Caucasus republic of Dagestan with neighboring Georgian region of Kakheti may pose a risk to Georgia’s security in a long-term perspective, a military analyst, Irakli Aladashvili, suggested in an article published by the weekly Kviris Palitra on February 18.
Russia’s President voiced the initiative to construct the road through Mushaki pass when visiting Dagestan in early February. “The road goes through Tsumadin region [in Dagestan] which boarders with Georgia,” Putin said. “This will be yet another corridor leading towards Georgia.”
Russia already has three border crossing points with Georgia. However two of them are located in breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while the third one remains closed by Russia since 2006 as part of Russia’s embargo on Georgia.
“A doubt emerges, that the Kremlin needs to lay road via Mushaki pass for military-politico reasons rather than for economic purposes,” the article reads. “We have already witness problems that were created for Georgia’s territorial integrity by construction of Roki Tunnel in the Soviet times, so repeating the same mistake would amount to crime.”
Roki Tunnel, which was completed in 1985, linked now Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia with neighboring Russia’s North Ossetian Republic. Authorities in Tbilisi have long been pushing for international monitoring of the tunnel claiming that it was a major route for arms trafficking and smuggling in the secessionist region.
The Kviris Palitra article points out that the hypothetical road will link Republic of Dagestan with those villages of the Kakheti region, which are populated by Laks, an ethnic group, which is also residing in Dagestan.
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