Ossetia Safari I

In my last post I promised to write something about the Tbilisi night life, with some references to the Traffic Bar. I am sorry to say that you are not going to get that, at least for the time being.

I also mentioned something about the Romanian President’s ratings going up by 10 points. You might wonder why I am talking about Romanian politics in a blog about Georgia. Well, let me give you the scoop on that.

The other day I was telling Ionut that I was hoping to get into Ossetia. He suggested I should be careful lest I repeat the story of the Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq. At the time, after intense negotiations with the kidnappers (probably including significant amounts of cash in hard currency) and heavy involvement by the Romanian President, the journalists were finally repatriated, leading to an instant surge in Basescu's popularity ratings.

The short story is that I tried, and failed, to get into South Ossetia.

The long story is that I got approached by a team of journalists from Rustavi 2 TV while coming back from lunch with Tim Blauvelt. They were interested in meeting interns working on the frozen conflicts and suggested we have a quick chat. They asked me a few questions trying to get my take on the conflicts, seemed very interested in what I had to say, offered coffee and took notes. I was on the fast track to becoming The Foreign Expert.

At the end of the discussion, the mentioned their interest of going to South Ossetia and interviewing some people. Or rather, of going to South Ossetia and having me interview some people there. Would I be interested in going there?

It all seemed a little too good to be true. There had to be a catch. It started to become obvious when, the same afternoon, I was almost dragged out the office, drove to the old town, and made to stroll ‘casually’ down some old streets, while a gigantic camera was breathing down my neck. The whole ordeal lasted close to an hour, included me setting on a bench, admiring a park, looking at buildings, and uttering some words of wisdom regarding South Ossetia. My foreign expert status was making a glamorous twist.

The trip was planned for Friday. I spent most of Thursday on the phone with David, and the remainder of the time texting him. He was trying to get the authorization to go to Tskhinvali, but there were some problems. By the end of the day, he admitted that “things are not so good there,” but added confidently “that we are going anyway.”