ArmInfo. In order to arouse Moscow's real interest in the corridors through Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it is necessary to ensure their access to Iran and the rest of the Gulf countries, expert on energy security Vahe Davtyan expressed such an opinion to ArmInfo.
"A significant shift in the ongoing negotiations between Russia, Georgia and the Swiss company SGS since 2011, of course, gives hope for Armenia to gain the possibility of using corridors that are very important from the point of view of transport and logistics diversification. At the same time, these agreements more closely fit geopolitical logic, since Russia participates in these negotiations with the goal of finally achieving WTO membership. On the whole, Moscow assesses the final implementation of this project rather skeptically. While Russian diplomats are already saying that the agreements reached are insignificant due to the absence of an imperative component, "the expert emphasized.
On February 5, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Kommersant about the completion by Moscow and Tbilisi of the procedures necessary for the implementation of the 2011 agreement on the basic principles of the mechanism of customs administration and monitoring of trade in goods. "On February 6, as we hope, a meeting of interdepartmental delegations of Russia and Georgia will be held in Geneva, in which representatives of Switzerland and SGS will also take part. If the results of this meeting are positive, we will finally be able to start implementing the agreements reached in 2011" , noted Karasin. At the same time, the diplomat urged not to hurry with the expectations of increasing trade with Georgia or with Armenia.
Moreover, the absence in the agreement of even a mention of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, according to the expert forecasts, can create additional risks for the safe implementation of freight traffic. Thus, in Davtyan's view, the problem is much deeper and primarily rests on the lack of serious geo-economic importance of these corridors for Russia. According to his estimates, the situation may change in case the corridors through unrecognized republics gain transit importance, which will significantly increase the volume of freight traffic. For example, the return to the agenda of the idea of building the Iran-Armenia railway, which will allow Russia to provide a direct transport link with Iran and the Gulf countries through Armenia and corridors in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "Considering the implementation of the backup railway project through Azerbaijan with the participation of Russia and Iran, the very continuation of the existing situation is a significant challenge for Armenia. In my view, in this light, Yerevan should bring its own contribution to the corridor agenda of the talks between Russia and Georgia introducing the idea of continuing the corridors further south in order to give the latter transit significance. It seems to me that such a project will open up additional prospects for the implementation of the agreements between Moscow and Tbilisi ", the expert summerized.
May 24 last year in Prague, representatives of Russia and Georgia reached an agreement on the formation of a commission for customs control of goods in the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from representatives of Georgia, Russia and the Swiss company SGS. According to the contract, three corridors will be arranged for the transportation of goods - in the direction of the territory of Abkhazia, on Lars and in the Tskhinvali region. The 2011 agreement lists geographical coordinates, not place names. This was done in order to maintain a neutral approach to the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. According to RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, the implementation of the agreement will open alternative routes for the transportation of goods to Armenia in cases where the road through Upper Lars is closed. Now the Georgian Military Highway, on which the Upper Lars checkpoint is located in North Ossetia, is one of the main transport routes connecting Russia with Georgia and Armenia. In winter, there is a high probability of heavy snowfall and avalanches, which makes it the third in the ranking of the most dangerous roads in the world, compiled by the Internet resource Autospies.com.