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Borderization, South Ossetia

Borderization and territorial claims South Ossetia

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“Borderization refers to the construction of physical barriers to transform a territorial ceasefire line into an international border.”

While there are various ways to implement so called borderization, this page focuses on the construction by South Ossetian and Russian forces of physical barriers along the ABL of South Ossetia. Such as fences, barbed wire, border signs and other markings in the landscape outside of the crossing points.

Jump to archive pages for 2020, 2019, 2018 or 2017. Note: the Chorchana – Tsnelisi territorial conflict and borderization at that location can be found in its own page. 

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Arrests occupation line, South Ossetia

Abduction, arrest and detention near occupation line South Ossetia

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Georgian civilians living around the occupation line (sometimes referred to as Administrative Boundary Line) of South Ossetia frequently experience arrest, abduction and detention by Russian or South Ossetian “border guards” for alleged violation and trespassing of the “border”.

This page keeps track of the latest developments of such arrests. Archived years can be found  in the left sidebar. While having mapped incidents since 2014, the blogged chronology is currently only available from 2017 onwards. 

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South Ossetia

Territorial dispute Chorchana-Tsnelisi over old and “fake” maps

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In August 2019 a territorial claim of the separatist Republic of South Ossetia on Georgian controlled territory escalated into a security crisis, after Georgian authorities constructed a police observation post in Georgian controlled territory near the conflict line. The course of the so-called “border” in the area between South Ossetian controlled Tsnelisi and Georgian controlled Chorchana is disputed by South Ossetia. The crisis led to a de facto South Ossetian annexation of Georgian administered territory. This page is a chronological overview of developments since August 2019 (last updates at the bottom of the page), including backgrounds on various aspects.

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South Ossetia

Russian military infrastructure in South Ossetia region

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The Russian-Georgian war of August 2008 resulted in a massive increase of Russian military presence in Georgia’s South Ossetia region. An estimated 4.000 (only 4th Military Base) to 5.000 military personnel (3.500 4th Military Base, 1.500 border guards, source, source2) are deployed in the region. This is a tenfold of official Russian (“peacekeeping”) presence prior to 2008 and with much stronger warfare equipment. According to the latest data just 53.000 people live in the area. This page visualizes some of the Russian presence and its expansion over the years in South Ossetia, based on public material available.

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South Ossetia

Borderline life: Georgia and South Ossetia

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“This is a frozen conflict, but it shouldn’t become a forgotten one. Three actions are required from Russia to solve the conflict: fulfilling unconditionally all the provisions of the ceasefire agreement, ceasing „borderisation“ on the Administrative Boundary Line [of South Ossetia] and refraining from advancing further into Georgian territory, and allowing for the return of all displaced Georgian citizens”. (David McAllister, MEP, European Parliament, 14 June 2018)

On June 14, 2018, the European Parliament unanimously passed the resolution “Georgian occupied territories 10 years after the Russian invasion”. This resolution addresses a range of violations of international conduct by the Russian Federation regarding the Georgian separatist regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, all directly or indirectly a result of the Russian intervention in August 2008, nearly 10 years ago. While this resolution was discussed and passed, new instances of the condemned actions in the region were happening, under Russia’s watch, such as kidnapping and detention of civilians and military exercises.

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