De Facto FM of Occupied Tskhinvali Says New Georgian President Willbe Like Alice in Wonderland
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, December 3
The de facto foreign minister of Georgian breakaway Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region Dimitri Medoev claims that a new, fifth president of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili will have to act like Alice in Wonderland.
"The newly elected president of Georgia will have to live in a wonderland" like Alice – she will have to condemn occupants on the one hand and sell goods and services to them on the other hand. It's like collaboration in Paris in the 40s. But this topic is close to Salome Zourabichvili,” he stated after Zourabichvili’s interviews for international media, where she condemned Russia’s illegal activities in Georgia and Ukraine.
"I do not think that anyone expected a more original response from her. From the first minutes of the election, a loud message was sent to western partners and Russia. This message is useful for internal use as well," Medoev says.
Tskhinvali is one of two Russian-occupied regions of Georgia, which have been declared as independent states by only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria since the Russia-Georgia 2008 war.
An investigative story of the Washington Post, which was released this month, reads that the Georgian occupied Tskhinvali region has become a “hidden financial crossroads for Russia’s shadow empire around the Black Sea”.
“Separatist officials and business figures in eastern Ukraine — one of the main Moscow-backed breakaway territories in the region — transfer money to South Ossetia. The funds are wired to Russia, officials familiar with the arrangement told The Post. The money then pays for goods such as fuel and building materials, which are shipped from Russia directly to eastern Ukraine, interviews and records show,” the article reads.
The Washington Post says that the arrangement also works in reverse, allowing exports from the separatist territories to be sold in Russia.
“This year alone, more than $150 million in payments has been funneled through South Ossetia, according to an estimate by the territory’s tax office,” reads the story, adding that Russia traded roughly more than $150 million in goods with rebel-held territory in Ukraine in the first half of this year using South Ossetia as the payment center, according to officials and tax records.
At least 146 limited liability companies, the South Ossetian tax office said, were active this year in facilitating trade with the Russian-backed separatist territories, the media says.
“Ossetia is essentially like an offshore company,” said a lawyer based in the eastern-Ukraine rebel stronghold of Donetsk who specializes in foreign trade. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he worried about repercussions for describing the system to a Western reporter.
