US McCain Institute releases video illustrations of Russia’s illegal activities in Georgia’s occupied regions

The US McCain Institute for International Leadership in cooperation with the Heritage Foundation and the Economic Policy Research Center has created two video visualisations showing Russia’s policy of ‘borderisation’ [erection of illegal barriers, barbed-wire-fences] in the two occupied regions of Georgia Abkhazia and Tskhinvali.

• EU's eyes and ears on Russia's creeping occupation

The institute says that Russia started the ‘borderisation’ process back in 2011, three years after the war with Georgia in 2008.

The video has been released by McCain Institute. 

According to a study by the Heritage Foundation, borderisation is being implemented by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and local separatist forces in the occupied regions. 155 incidents have been reported so far,” the McCain Institute says.

They say that ‘borderisation’ includes constructing illegal fencing and earthen barriers to separate communities and the installation of so-called border signs.

In some cases Russia has taken even more territory in what can be described as a creeping annexation,” the McCain Institute says.

The institute says that the practice “is a clear violation of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” dividing local families and communities “which leads not only to human tragedy, but also decreases the possibility for future peaceful reintegration of these territories.”

The McCain Institute has also provided an interactive timeline with detailed information on each of the documented incidents.