The numerous “pseudo-republics” of the Caucasus mountain region, like those of the Balkan Peninsula, are created and promoted due to geopolitical infighting amid divide-and-conquer strategies between East and West. The pseudo-state backed by Russia of Abkhazia in Georgia is one of such locations. According to Asia News, the COVID-19 spread has been used to restart tensions between Abkhazia and Georgia after claims a woman from Abkhazia came to Georgia and spread the virus in the nation.
Recently, Georgia’s Rustavi-2 TV channel reported the story of an Abkhazian woman showing severe symptoms of pulmonary disease, hospitalised in the Georgian province of Zugdidi, which is next to Abkhazia.
According to hospital doctors, the patient, who had returned from Russia, was in stable conditions. In order to determine if she was positive to the coronavirus, her test results were sent to the Lugar Research Center in Tbilisi, Georgia’s main infectious disease centre.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that “We will do everything to protect the health of our citizens on both sides of the occupation line.”
The Zugdidi Infectious Diseases Hospital is one of the medical facilities reserved for coronavirus patients, and is located not far from the line between Georgia and pro-Russian Abkhazia, built after the bloody conflict of 2011.
The hospital was built in 2014 at a cost of US$ 15 billion to provide care to Georgian citizens living in Abkhazia, and thus help ease tensions in the area. This time the opposite effect was produced.
In Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, a statement by the local Security Service (once part of the KGB) expressed surprise and regret for the television report. “In the last three days, no Abkhazian citizen has crossed the border with Georgia since it was closed by decision of the President of Abkhazia.”
Georgian authorities responded by saying that not only the woman in question was recovering in a Georgian hospital, but that “many Abkhazians regularly go to Georgia for medical treatment, which is offered to them absolutely free of charge.”
For Irakli Chikovani, head of the Tbilisi Prime Minister’s press office, the danger of the coronavirus has forced Georgian authorities to “increase border controls, due to the worsening epidemiological situation in the Abkhazia region.” (source)
It does not really matter here what the actual situation is with the virus or how it came to be. What matters is that, aside from the fact that the spread must be controlled, this is happening at a time when the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk may be severed from Ukraine just as Crimea was in a modern-day dividing up of Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe that historically is a sign that Europe is going to go back to war. Germany and Russia have a long history of dividing up Eastern Europe between themselves before turning against each other with full war. The strategic region of the Caucasus mountains, which is under Russian control but highly desired by Germany due to the large oil deposits in the Volga Basin, is also being targeted and likely will continue to be so for this exact reason.
This is the amazing situation with COVID-19. It is truly and in the literal sense for a geopolitical strategist and military tactician a gift that does not stop giving, as the legitimate concern about the spread of the disease can act as a simple cover for many questionable or nefarious things.