NBC News: Putin-backed 'borderisation' costs Georgia land

NBC News has published a story about the situation along the occupation line near Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

The article was published in anticipation of August 8, which will mark the 10th anniversary of the six-day Russia-Georgia war which killed 850 people and left 192,000 displaced from their homes.

NBC News reporter Alexander Smith has visited the village of Khurvaleti, where the Russian backed barbed-wire fence edges are moving closer and closer to people living on Georgian controlled territory.

"Ignoring Washington's warnings, troops have been moving a disputed boundary deeper into Georgia, a former Soviet republic that's now a staunch U.S. ally,” Alexander Smith wrote.

Smith tells the story of 51-year-old cattle farmer Vasya who lives in Khurvaleti and who is afraid that he might wake up on Russian-controlled soil one night.

"What should I do? If the Russians come closer I will not be able to do anything," Vasya told NBC News.

Smith also details post-war events saying that Moscow has built 19 military bases in South Ossetia alone.

"Russia agreed to withdraw its soldiers as part of a cease-fire deal, but they have not. Instead, troops or their local allies have bolstered the separatists' boundaries or moved them deeper into Georgia,” reads the story.

As the the EU monitoring mission chief Erik Høeg told NBC News the boundary "has been hardening" and become "more impenetrable”.

"[The situation] has been much more difficult since 2009, and we see less flexibility compared to three or four years ago,” he said.

Referring to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, Smith writes that on the 260-mile boundary between Georgia and South Ossetia, there have been at least 56 instances of borderisation since 2011.

Despite the fact that only Russia, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru recognise the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, while everyone else — including the U.S. and its allies — sees all borderisation as a land-grab in violation of international law, "most experts and locals concede there's little anyone can do about it,” reads the story.

However, Smith writes, U.S. officials are alarmed that Russia appears to be eating away at an American ally that has sent around 870 troops to Afghanistan, the most per capita of any country.

"The United States’ support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering," Elizabeth Rood, chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi told NBC News.

"We strongly support Georgia in calling out Russia and the de facto separatist regimes on human rights abuses in the occupied territories," she added, "and on the continued violation of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

"The situation seems as deadlocked as ever,” reads the story. Smith says that the Geneva International Discussions - mediation talks launched in October 2008 to address the consequences of the conflict, involving US, Russia, Georgia and the breakaway territories - "have shown little sign of meaningful progress after their 44th round.”

On the other hand, the author says that NATO promised Georgia membership months before the war started in 2008 while recently all 29 member states have "reaffirmed that Georgia will become a member of NATO."

"But the war and its aftermath have complicated this ascension process — possibly terminally,” Smith writes, and in this regard also mentions a warning from Putin last month that if NATO adds Georgia on his southern flank, he would "respond appropriately to such aggressive steps which pose a direct threat to Russia.”

Read the full story here: nbcnews.com