SWISS VIEWS ON ABKHAZIA/SOUTH OSSETIA AND RUSSIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERN 000137 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/RUS AND EUR/CE (Y.SAINT-ANDRE) E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2029 TAGS: PREL MOPS PBTS GG RS SZ SUBJECT: SWISS VIEWS ON ABKHAZIA/SOUTH OSSETIA AND RUSSIAN BASING PLANS REF: A. STATE 24186 ¶B. MOSCOW 645 Classified By: A/DCM Richard A. Rorvig; reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) POLOFF delivered the reftel A message March 20 to Norbert Baerlocher, Regional Coordinator for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Baerlocher underlined that Switzerland shares USG concerns regarding Russian basing plans and regarding any actions that could be viewed as conferring recognition on Abkhazia or South Ossetia. He said that the GOS only deals with issues in Abkhazia or South Ossetia via the Swiss embassy in Tbilisi. To illustrate the point, he remarked that the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) has some programs in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. Contacts in that region had recently suggested to the SDC that it expand its programs into South Ossetia, which the GOS flatly refused, insisting that any programming in South Ossetia would have to be via Georgia. Baerlocher also emphasized that the GOS does not accept "passports" from Abkhazia or South Ossetia for travel to Switzerland. ¶2. (C) Baerlocher said that he was pleased that Georgia had asked Switzerland to serve as its Protecting Power in Moscow (reftel B). He commented that this obligation allows Switzerland more easily to maintain "equidistance" toward Moscow in performing Switzerland's Protecting Power role for the Russians Tbilisi. CARTER