But Georgia is making a mistake using force to interrupt the trade:
Rising tensions between Russia and Georgia over shipping rights to a breakaway Georgian region have opened a potential new theater for conflict between the countries, a little more than a year after they went to war.
Georgia’s coast guard has commandeered five merchant vessels from various countries this year for violating Georgian laws on shipping to a Black Sea port in Abkhazia, the breakaway region.
Last week, a Georgian court sentenced the captain of a Turkish cargo ship to 24 years in prison for border violations, though he was quickly released at Turkey’s behest.
The Georgians are playing with fire. They aren't ready to resist another Russian invasion and we aren't about to go to war over something that escalates from this issue.
Georgia needs to raise the cost of Russia using Buket by filing court cases against companies and their home countries for damages, and not by putting their tiny coast guard in harm's way.
We need to make the Georgians understand that getting their lost regions back has got to be a long-term goal and not something they try to achieve now at the risk of war.
Quite honestly, the regions aren't worth a single Georgian grenadier. If Georgia focuses on building up their fortunes, one day the Georgians will probably be the one's refusing the requests of two backward parts of Russia for entry into EU and NATO member Georgia.
