[LINK] "In Russian protege Abkhazia, a cautionary tale for Crimea"

[rfmcdonald]

Maria Tsvetkova's Reuters article overreaches in comparing the potential situation of a Russian-annexed Crimea with that of willing ex-Georgian but Russian satellite Abkhazia. Crimea was annexed directly into the Russian Federation unlike an Abkhazia which was left of outside, and moreover is of substantially greater sentimental and importance to Russians. Against this, Crimea is much larger.

Turning its back on Georgia, as Crimea has to Kiev, disrupted Abkhazia's trade and transport and hitched its economy to the oil-fueled rouble, importing heavily from Russia, where wages and prices are much higher than in Georgia - or Ukraine.

[. . .]

Russia has said it could spend up to $7 billion this year alone to integrate Crimea's economy into its own - no simple matter when they share no land border.

In Abkhazia, by contrast, Russia invested just a tenth of that in five years, from 2009 to 2013. Just over half went on construction projects, including kindergartens, two theaters and a stadium, and the rest on pensions and state workers' wages.

[. . .]

Famed for its subtropical climate, clean sea and snow-capped mountains, Abkhazia was a favorite retreat for Georgian-born Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and a sought-after holiday destination for generations of workers from across the USSR.

Today, a broad new coastal highway covers the few miles to the Abkhazian border from the lavish Olympic Park built for this year's Sochi winter games. But after the checkpoint, the road narrows. The picturesque mountain landscape is dotted with abandoned apartment blocks with empty windows and bullet holes.

Abkhazia won the 1992-93 war against Georgia but, like its population, which was virtually halved by an exodus of refugees, tourism has never fully recovered. It is hard to find a place on the shore without a view of battle-scarred hotels. The charred hulk of a public building dominates the center of Sukhumi.