Last week the units and special machinery of the Railroad Forces without armaments were brought to Abkhazia. According to official statement by the Russian defense ministry, that was done with the decision by the Russian President in relation to appeal by the Abkhazian government asking for humanitarian aid and “organization of restoring the transport facilities and infrastructure”.   

Sergei Shamba, Abkhazian foreign minister, announced that the “railroad will be needed for carriage of goods for Olympic building sites in Sochi and for facilitating of movements by peace-making forces and materiel”. The General Director of the state company “Abkhazian railroads” Guram Gubaz added that the Russian militaries (about 400 people) are to restore the railroad bed south of Sukhumi up to the city of Ochamchira.    

Responding to these steps, Tbilisi accused Moscow of preparing military intervention. Deputy Georgian defense minister Batu Kutelia stated that “from a military planning point of view all this is a preparation of infrastructure for military aggression”.  

Generally, one may agree with Mr. Kutelia. In case of any military operations our Staffs use, as a rule, the railroads for transferring the forces. Unlike the western armies, our militaries do not have special trucking platforms for carrying tanks and other kinds of heavy materiel. This is why we have special Railroad Forces that are now brought to Abkhazia.   

It wouldn’t be possible to organize transportation of the heavy stuff and evacuation of the damaged machinery without repairs and preparing of the railroad in Abkhazia. However, so far it’s been light armored machinery that was used in Abkhazia for peace-making purposes. For example, in May a battalion of paratroopers was brought with light military hardware and tugged howitzers D-30. It seems that now our Staff has decided to prepare a real engineered springboard near the River of Inguri and Kodori gorge. Abkhazian foreign minister Shamba confirmed that the repairs of the railroad are intended for facilitation of the forces and materiel.      

As for statements about business activities, that looks ridiculous. It’s much easier carrying the sand and gravel from Abkhazian open pits for Olympic building in Sochi without having to load it twice to the flatcars and back. Even more ridiculous looks the reasoning about beginning of construction of a certain transport corridor in Transcaucasia. The railroad along the Black Sea coast up to Sochi and further is single-track. It hardly could provide sufficient service for the local resorts in soviet times. So if we talk about new transport corridor, then we need to reconstruct all the Black Sea railroad on the Russian territory to north of Sochi, and only after that it would be sensible to enter Abkhazia. And of course it should be done not with Railroad Troops intended for urgent repairing of the railroad bed and organizing the temporary stations for unloading the armaments; not intended for capital construction.           

The situation about Abkhazia reminds of that in 1999. That year in early spring it was decided principally to get in war with Chechnya in August-September. All summer the engineering preparation was going on for future rolling out the attacking units. And a series of provocations was carried out providing for the occasion for war to be started. As the decision had been taken to be in war anyway, any attempts for talks by the moderate separatist and that-time Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov were ignored. Today deputy Georgian defense minister Kutelia affirms that “all relations with the Russian side are reduced to exchange of notes”. Last week the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov stated that it is impossible to make any arrangements with the Georgian government. “I cannot get what they want besides performing their function of constant provoking Russia. I don’t think they intended that by themselves”.    

In 1999 we were told that it was international terrorism standing behind the Chechen separatists. Today it appears that it’s the US and NATO to back Georgians. By the way, it is announced that the soldiers from Railroad Troops would finish the engineering preparations of the railroad bed in Abkhazia within 2-3 months. So the beginning of potential military operation might coincide with 1999 again, and the holiday-makers would not be affected.  

Much will become clear after Medvedev-Saakashvili meeting on 6 June within the frames of CIS summit in St Petersburg.