New York Times: “In Russia’s ‘Frozen Zone,’ a Creeping Border With Georgia”

If you want to know what it’s like to be living in an area where a border moves daily and one morning you might find your house and garden on different sides of the boundary, go no further than an article published online by the New York Times to learn about the life near the Russian occupation line in Georgia.

Author Andrew Higginsoct describes how Russia keeps inching forward into Georgia and how local residents have to leave their houses after so-called border moves day by day.

"The destitute mountainous area of South Ossetia first declared itself independent from Georgia in 1990, but nobody outside the region paid much attention until Russia invaded in August 2008 and recognised South Ossetia’s claims to statehood,” the author says.

He adds that with that, the territory joined Abkhazia in western Georgia, the Moldovan enclave of Transnistria and eastern Ukraine as a "frozen zone,” an area of Russian control within neighbouring states, useful for things like preventing a NATO foothold or destabilising the host country at opportune moments.

The article reads that the green border signs that first appeared last year and now keep popping up along the zigzagging boundary warn that "passage is forbidden” across what is declared to be a "state border.” Which state, however, is not specified, though locals are in no doubt about its identity.

"Russia starts right here,” one local resident told the author, pointing to the freshly dug track that separates his house from Georgian-held land.

"But who knows where Russia will start tomorrow or the next day,” he said. "If they keep moving the line, we will one day all be living in a Russian-Georgian Federation.”

Read the full article here: www.nytimes.com