Russia has many ways to influence events in country’s on its periphery, both subtle and not. In Ukraine, that influence-peddling has taken the form of outright warfare. In Georgia, that effort is far less conspicuous, and this week Russia took yet another step to more closely bind that country’s breakaway republics to Moscow.
On Friday, the Russian Duma ratified by a 441-1 vote an “Alliance and Integration Treaty” with Abkhazia — one of two Moscow-backed separatist enclaves in Georgia. The treaty will deepen ties between the Kremlin and the breakaway region by integrating Abkhazian troops into the Russian armed forces.
Giorgi Volsky, …read more
Source: Foreign Policy
