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PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
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    • List of Policy Memos
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RECOMMENDED
  • Russians supported Putin’s moves in Crimea in 2014. Here’s what’s different in 2021

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  • Putin’s Rules of the Game: The Pitfalls of Russia’s New Constitution

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  • In the Caucasus, There Is a Peace Agreement but Not Peace

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  • Russia’s Niche Soft Power: Sources, Targets and Channels of Influence

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  • A Weak Link in NATO? Bulgaria, Russia, and the Lure of Espionage

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RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • Music and Politics in Contemporary Russia [Lipman Series 2021] April 12, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Gorbachev about the dynamic music scene in contemporary Russia, and how free Russian musicians are to make political statements.
  • How is the Russian Government Coping with Rising Food Prices? [Lipman Series 2021] March 15, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Anton Tabakh about rising food prices in Russia, and what they might mean for Russia's current and future stability.
  • The Communist Party of the Russian Federation: More Than Just Systemic Opposition? [Lipman Series 2021] March 5, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Felix Light and Nikolay Petrov about the contemporary Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including the divisions between its leadership and membership, its attitude toward Alexei Navalny, and why it might be more than just "systemic" opposition after all.
  • Internet Resources: Civic Communication and State Surveillance [Lipman Series 2021] February 16, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Andrei Soldatov and Tanya Lokot about the role of the internet in contemporary Russian politics, including both as a tool of the Russian opposition and as an instrument of the increasingly repressive Russian regime.
  • The Rise of Alexei Navalny's Political Stature and Mass Protest in Russia [Lipman Series 2021] February 1, 2021
    In the first PONARS Eurasia Podcast of 2021, Maria Lipman chats with Greg Yudin about the current protests taking place in Russia, and what Alexei Navalny's growing popular support means for the Putin regime.
  • Russian Social Policy in the COVID-19 Era [Lipman Series 2020] December 21, 2020
    In 2020’s final episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sarah Wilson Sokhey and Ella Paneyakh to discuss Russian social policy in the COVID-19 era, and public perception of Russia’s overall pandemic response.
  • Conscious Parenting Practices in Contemporary Russia [Lipman Series 2020] December 10, 2020
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Julia Yuzbasheva and Maria Danilova to learn more about the proliferation of "conscious parenting" practices in contemporary Russian society.
  • The Transformation of Belarussian Society [Lipman Series 2020] November 11, 2020
    In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Masha Lipman chats with Grigory Ioffe about the long-term and short-term factors that led up to the current protests in Belarus, and the ongoing transformation of Belarussian society.
  • Russian Lawmakers Adjust National Legislation to the Revised Constitutional Framework [Lipman Series 2020] October 26, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about ongoing changes to Russia’s national legislation based on the recently revised constitutional framework, and what these changes portend for the 2021 Duma election.
  • Russia's Regional Elections [Lipman Series 2020] September 25, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Graeme Robertson and Konstantin Gaaze about Russia’s September 13 regional elections and whether or not the Kremlin should be worried about upcoming Duma elections.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

New Ambiguity in Georgian-Russian Relations

  • April 2, 2013
  • Sufian Zhemukhov

Relations between Russia and Georgia are going through some changes after the new government came to power in Georgia. If before, Saakashvili and Putin/Medvedev had been exercising a policy of pure hostility toward each other, the new Georgian policy is to persuade a reluctant Russia of Georgia's good intentions. Two recent news items, contradicting each other, demonstrate the new ambiguity in Georgian-Russian relations. From one side, Georgian NGOs visited Kabardino-Balkaria last month, developing connections with pro-Kremlin Circassian NGOs in Russia that had recently established contacts of their own in Tbilisi. During that visit to Tbilisi, one of the Circassian delegates made a statement against the Georgian Parliament’s recognition of the Circassian genocide in 2011, but other Circassian delegates dismissed it as his personal opinion and criticized it. However, the recent visit of the Georgian delegation looks like another step toward preparation of grounds for abolishing the Georgian Parliament's resolution. In a second development in March, Ingush leader Yunus-bek Evkurov made a statement about the effective measures he has taken to avoid any danger of a possible Georgian invasion into Russia via Ingushetia's borders.

I asked Solomon Lebanidze (Tbilisi State University) to comment on these contradictions: "I thought that Evkurov was rather late to announce that Georgian-Ingush borders are safely locked down. Even before the Georgian Dream political coalition came to power, relations between Georgia and the North Caucasus were developing dynamically. Though those were not official relations, Ingush society and Georgian NGOs have been communicating and broadening their contacts for some time already. What are those statements about sealed Georgian-Ingush borders for, if Georgia never militarily threatened Ingushetia? Our people do not need such sealed borders.

As for the experts from Georgian NGOs that visited the North Caucasus, they represent different organizations that have different approaches towards the development of Georgian-Russian relations. Among them, only the "Institute of Eurasia" is a pro-Russian NGO that promotes abolishing the Georgian Parliament's resolution recognizing the Circassian genocide. Other experts in the delegation have different opinions. I met with one of the experts after his visit to Russia and found that we were in complete agreement in understanding the problems of the North Caucasus and of the Circassian question. We have not abandoned these positions with the change in government."

Sufian Zhemukhov is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), George Washington University, blogging for PONARS Eurasia on the Caucasus.

Sufian Zhemukhov
Sufian Zhemukhov
Website | + posts
Associate Research Professor
Affiliation

George Washington University
Links

PONARS Eurasia (Bio)
Expertise

Ethnic Politics, Politics of Post-Soviet Countries, Nationalism, Islam, and Conflict Resolution
  • Sufian Zhemukhov
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/sufian-zhemukhov/
    Outsiders and Locals: The Kremlin’s Policy of Appointing Governors in the North Caucasus
  • Sufian Zhemukhov
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/sufian-zhemukhov/
    The Linkages Between Intergroup Tolerance and Socialization in Religious Rituals
  • Sufian Zhemukhov
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/sufian-zhemukhov/
    Обвиняется Кремль?
  • Sufian Zhemukhov
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/sufian-zhemukhov/
    О незабытом геноциде черкесов
Related Topics
  • Caucasus
  • Georgia
  • Russia
  • Zhemukhov
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  • April 3, 2013
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