Russia's agreement on integration of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has crossed out the prospects of the Abkhaz railway section, Kakha Gogolashvili, Head of the Center for EU Studies (Tbilisi), says in an online interview.
Earlier President of Russian Railways JSC Vladimir Yakunin told ArmInfo about the prospects of direct railway service via Abkhazia. He said that Russian Railways JSC considers the launch of the Abkhaz section to be an economic project rather than a political one.
"When the issue of resumption of the Georgian-Russian railway service via Abkhazia became topical, Tbilisi and Moscow started a normalization process. However, by signing the agreement on integration of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2015, Moscow actually blocked all the possibilities for further normalization of relations with Georgia," says Gogolashvili.
The Georgian politician notes that the matter also concerns cooperation within joint projects, including the Abkhaz railway section. So, the railway service will not be resumed in the near future, he says.
The 221km Abkhaz section of the railway extending from Psou roadside stop (Abkhazia-Russia border) to Ingur roadside stop (Abkhazia-Georgia border) has been closed for Armenia and Georgia since Aug 14 1992 after the railway bridge over the River Ingur (dividing Georgia from Abkhazia) was detonated.
Therefore, the South Caucasus Railway (SCR) under concession of the Russian Railways is engaged in transportation of passengers and freight inside Armenia and to Georgia via Poti and Batumi. Out of four locomotive changing points of the SCR only one with Georgia (Ayrum-Sadakhlo) operates. The other three: Akhuryan- Dogukapi (Turkey), Yeraskh-Velidag (Azerbaijan) and Ijevan-Barkhudarli (Azerbaijan) have been idling since 1991.
The online interview has been organized under the Region Research Center's project "Dialogue International Press Center: diversification of international information sources for Armenian media" with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.