Russian generals portray the Pankisi Gorge in neighboring Georgia as a seething hotbed of violence and terrorism, a refuge for hundreds of Chechen separatist rebels who are as sinister and dangerous as the militants of Al Qaeda.
But the 8-mile-long stretch of verdant valley and rugged mountainside, say analysts and residents of Pankisi’s small towns and villages, is less a nest of terrorism than a tool of geopolitics.
Russia and the United States have fostered a growing partnership since Sept. 11, but they have not abandoned the struggle for influence in the Caucasus, a region prized militarily and economically from the days of the Silk Road through the end of the Cold War.
Last week as 1,000 Georgian soldiers–some trained by U.S. Green Berets–fanned out across Pankisi ostensibly in search of Chechen rebels and other armed militants, Georgia and Russia traded barbs.
The Russians want Georgia to do more to corral Chechen fighters who hole up among sympathetic ethnic kinfolk in Pankisi, a rugged military theater accessible only by helicopter or through treacherous mountain passes closed by snow for much of the year.
Since July, Moscow has renewed threats to send Russian troops into the gorge to chase down the Chechens. Three times last month, say Georgian officials and Western diplomats, Russian warplanes or helicopters bombed Georgian territory. The most recent incident 10 days ago killed a villager and wounded seven others.
The Georgians say the Russians exaggerate the Chechen presence, but that did not stop them from asking the United States to send hundreds of instructors to Georgia to help the former Soviet republic train its soldiers in fighting terrorism.
Some of those soldiers spent last week setting up checkpoints, combing small villages–and wondering what the fuss was all about regarding the Pankisi Gorge.
“We didn’t expect it to be so calm,” said Misha, a Georgian Interior Ministry Forces major stationed on the southern end of the gorge. “From what I see, everything is quiet here.”
A break
Four days without a single arrest had passed before the highly publicized operation could point to concrete results. On Thursday, Georgian authorities said they detained an Arab.
On Saturday, Security Ministry spokesman Nika Laliashvili said the man, Halid Oldali, had taken part in fighting against Russian troops in Chechnya since coming to Georgia in 1999. Officials are investigating him for alleged ties to terrorist groups, Laliashvili said.
Oldali was captured on the eve of a visit to Pankisi Gorge by Tbilisi-based U.S. and European diplomats. He was unarmed, had a French passport and was wearing a camouflage uniform under civilian clothes, Georgian authorities said. Georgian soldiers said they saw no trace of Chechen militants in Pankisi, though Russian leaders argue that Georgian authorities gave Chechen rebels advance notice of the troop operation.
In the past few weeks, the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin has emphasized the importance of Pankisi Gorge, likening the region’s troubles to terrorism in Afghanistan and accusing Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze of ignoring Chechen rebel activity there.
The gorge is just south of Georgia’s border with Chechnya. Most of its inhabitants are Kists, ethnic kin of Chechens who began settling there in the mid-1800s. Today, about 5,000 Kists live there, along with 4,000 Chechen war refugees.
Russian generals blame their inability to wipe out the Chechen separatist movement in part on Georgia. Chechen rebels flee their homeland for the Pankisi when the Russian military goes on the offensive, the army says, and the Georgians look the other way.
But that explanation for Russia’s failures in Chechnya is losing currency. The Russian people, who strongly supported Putin when he launched the second Chechen war in 1999 and rode it to the Russian presidency, have soured on the conflict. The deaths of Russian servicemen have surpassed 4,300 even by official counts, which most experts consider far too low.
Many Russians no longer believe that the Chechen conflict can be solved militarily, according to recent opinion polls.
On the Georgian side, the deployment of troops in the Pankisi Gorge provides Tbilisi with a way to counter Russian pressure. It also highlights the new U.S. role in Georgia, which was under Moscow’s direct and often unflinching control for centuries until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Among the soldiers assigned to the operation are dozens of officers trained by U.S. Special Forces advisers. The $64 million program began in April to ready Georgia’s poorly equipped, poorly trained army. The U.S. has said a few dozen fighters linked to Al Qaeda may be hiding in the gorge.
“Shevardnadze had to show his determination to change the situation in Pankisi and prove that American help is able to produce something positive,” said Alexei Arbatov, a member of Russia’s parliament and one of Russia’s foremost military affairs experts.
Georgians see a pointed message in the air raids, for which Moscow officially denies responsibility. Georgians view them as warnings that Georgia may have a new ally in the United States but its old friend Russia still wields power in the region.
Pinning hopes on U.S.
A nation of about 5 million people, most of whom are mired in deep poverty, Georgia has firmly allied itself with the U.S. partly in hopes of jumpstarting its economy. U.S. aid ranges from the Special Forces “train and equip” mission to a program that pays the electric bills of Georgian retirees in Tbilisi.
That alliance has helped the former Soviet republic step out of the shadow of Russia’s sphere of influence. Moreover, its new friendship with the West was forged by Shevardnadze, blamed by much of Russia for helping bring about the collapse of the Soviet empire as Mikhail Gorbachev’s foreign minister.
“What Russia really wants is to be some sort of locomotive which pulls all other former Soviet republics behind it,” said Shalva Pichkhadze, a Shevardnadze adviser. “I think Russia is not against the close ties between Georgia and the West but wants to make sure that Georgia follows Russia, rather than moving independently.”
Villagers who live inside Pankisi Gorge readily acknowledge that Chechen militants have fled to Pankisi to seek haven from Russian offensives, and at times have made life in the gorge perilous.
“But there is order in Pankisi, and the situation is grossly exaggerated,” said Tita Abubakarova, a psychologist with the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group and a Chechen refugee living in the gorge. “It’s all just a political game.”
Arbatov said the preoccupation with Pankisi is a mistake.
“Pankisi is a small problem which has been greatly exaggerated–by all sides,” he said. “All of a sudden, Pankisi has become almost the main reason why we cannot end the war in Chechnya. It’s ridiculous. Pankisi is a small area.
“Russia can change the situation in Chechnya,” Arbatov continued, “and get rid of this very painful sore point. And doing that does not require the elimination of Chechen guerrillas in Pankisi.”
The most recent Russian bombing attack, on Aug. 23, killed a villager and injured seven others gathering firewood in the gorge.
“We heard two planes and then the bombs dropped,” Zurab Valashvili, 35, said from his hospital bed in Tbilisi. “My lungs felt like they were going to explode. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, they were continuing to bomb.”
