Russia in Foreign Media

The EU and Abkhazia: between a rock and a hard place

12:04 18/03/2010

The EU’s outreach to Abkhazia is welcome – it demonstrates that it can formulate a unified policy towards a very complex problem. But unified does not mean coherent, and it remains torn between neutral economic engagement and Georgia’s sovereignty.

With Russian backing, Abkhazia bristles at any notion of being an ‘occupied territory’, but Georgia refuses to see it any other way. This is the bottom line. Between the rock of independence and the hard place of territorial integrity, Europe is trapped.

By Alexander Jackson

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<div style="border:1px solid #d3d3d3; padding:17px 0 0px 17px; background:#ffffff; width:510px;"><div style="width:100%; overflow:hidden;"><a target="_blank" href="http://en.rian.ru/valdai_foreign_media/20100318/158236721.html" style="text-decoration:none;"><img src="http://en.rian.ru/i/eng/logo_sml.gif" alt="RIA Novosti" title="RIA Novosti" style="float:left; margin-right:10px;" border="0" /></a><a target="_blank" href="http://en.rian.ru/valdai_foreign_media/20100318/158236721.html" style="color:#000000;text-decoration:none;display: block; margin: 0 10px 0 0 ;"><strong style="font:19px Georgia,Arial,sans-serif; line-height:16px; font-weight:bold;">The EU and Abkhazia: between a rock and a hard place</strong></a><p style="font:13px Georgia,Arial,sans-serif; padding:5px 10px 0px 0;"><span style="color:#5590bf;">12:04</span> <span style="color:#5590bf; padding-right:7px;">18/03/2010</span> <span style="font-size:12px;">The EU’s outreach to Abkhazia is welcome – it demonstrates that it can formulate a unified policy towards a very complex problem. But unified does not mean coherent, and it remains torn between neutral economic engagement and Georgia’s sovereignty.<a target="_blank" style="color:#335f86; padding-left:10px; text-decoration:underline;" href="http://en.rian.ru/valdai_foreign_media/20100318/158236721.html" title="The EU and Abkhazia: between a rock and a hard place">>></a></span></p><div style="padding:6px 0 15px 30px; font:10px Verdana,sans-serif;"><a target="_blank" style="color:#114472; text-decoration:underline;" href="http://en.rian.ru" title="RIA Novosti">Other news of the day</a></div></div></div>

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The EU and Abkhazia: between a rock and a hard place

12:04 18/03/2010 The EU’s outreach to Abkhazia is welcome – it demonstrates that it can formulate a unified policy towards a very complex problem. But unified does not mean coherent, and it remains torn between neutral economic engagement and Georgia’s sovereignty.>>

Other news of the day