The Georgian Military Highway or 'bottleneck' of the Caucasus? jam-news.net/the-georgian-military-highway-or-bottleneck-of-the-caucasus April 5, 2021 Main route from Georgia to Russia In the north of Georgia, in the snow-capped mountains, there is a road which has connected the countries of the South Caucasus with Russia for centuries. The section of the road from Tbilisi to the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the Russian- Georgian border, historically called the Georgian Military Highway, is today the only land highway connecting Georgia with Russia. It is vital for Armenia and also important for other countries in the region – Turkey and Azerbaijan. However, from autumn to spring the area becomes rather dangerous – heavy snowfall can block traffic at any time, avalanches are common and thousands of truck drivers or tourists get stuck in the cold. In summer, traffic is also difficult due to the large flow of tourists and occasional mudflows. What are the prospects for the main highway of the South Caucasus? Due to its geographical location, Georgia is the most important transit country in the region, connecting the countries of Central Asia with Europe. Cargoes through Georgia and from Georgia are transported by sea, rail and road. Highways account for 59 percent of the country’s freight traffic, which is about 17.2 million tons per year. The length of international transit roads in Georgia is 1,467 kilometers. One of the most important of them is the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda-Upper Lars road, which connects Georgia with Russia. Of the 315,500 cars that drove on the roads of Georgia in 2020, up to 45 percent drove on the Georgian Military Highway. 1/10 Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/xSxpH271l08 This is the only active land road from Georgia to Russia, since alternative routes – through Abkhazia and South Ossetia – have been closed for many years due to conflicts. This path is no less important for Armenia, which, with its help, is connected with its most important economic and political partner – Russia. 60-70 percent of all transit of goods for Armenia are carried out through the territory of Georgia. Most often, wheat, other food products and building materials from Russia are imported to Georgia and Armenia along this road. Wine is brought from Georgia to Russia, cognac, wine materials, fruits from Armenia. Industrial goods from Turkey are delivered to Russia along this road. Georgian Military Road, March 2021. Photo: JAMnews 2/10 Several thousand transit vehicles move along this road every day and their number has not decreased even during the pandemic. 38-year-old Alexander is from Belarus. He works as a trucker. The last time he loaded a car in Russia with hygiene products and delivered the cargo through Georgia to Armenia. On the way back, Alexander drives empty. The car will be loaded again in Russia and this time it will go A driver awaits the resumption of to Poland. traffic on the Georgian Military Highway, March 2021. Photo: David However, the road to Lars was closed due to bad Pipia, JAMnews weather, which changed his plans. “I have been standing here for four days. I sleep in the car, eat in the car. Before that, I stood near Tbilisi for four nights. They stop us there so as not to load the road here. Who should I ask? I dont know. I’m waiting for the police to come and say that we can move on. But my business suffers from this,”he says. Hundreds of trucks lined up on the road from Tbilisi to the north, starting from the village of Pasanauri. Day and night, they stand on the side of the road, forming a huge column that impedes the movement of cars. The movement of trucks in winter and summer is regulated by the patrol police. If they were all moving along this narrow road at the same time, traffic would be nearly impossible for cars, tourists and locals. Now drivers have been standing in one place for several days due to heavy snowfall. They sleep and eat in their trucks. To pass the time, they sometimes go out and talk to each other. Some of them are already accustomed to such waiting and are well prepared: one of the drivers washes right on the road in front of his own car with the help of a small bucket. Drivers complain that Lars is an inconvenient route due to such delays, but at the moment there is no alternative to it. 3/10 Drivers awaiting the resumption of traffic on the Georgian Military Highway, March 2021. Photo: David Pipia, JAMnews However, experts say that the problem is not only the impassability of the road and climatic conditions. Paata Tsagareishvili, director of the Georgian Transport Corridor Research Center, claims that the narrowest point on this route is a checkpoint on the Russian side. “Russian customs can handle only 400 trucks a day, and sometimes 800-1000 vehicles pass here. Despite heavy traffic on the roads, Russian customs are not expanded. The solution to this problem depends entirely on Russia. In this case, Georgia will not be able to do anything,” the expert says. A new road – a solution to the problem? While Georgia has every opportunity to be a leading transit country, according to a study by Tbilisi State University, Georgia is not using this opportunity appropriately. According to the Logistics Performance Index developed by the World Bank, in 2018 Georgia ranked 119th out of 160 countries by this criterion. Until recently, Georgia was the uncontested transit hub in the region, but following the second Karabakh war everything can change; an agreement was reached in Moscow according to which Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to open previously closed transit corridors. This means that alternative routes will appear in the region, which could weaken the transit importance of Georgia. 4/10 Georgian Military Road, March 2021. David Pipia, JAMnews Dean of the business school of the Tbilisi Free University Giga Bedineishvili does not consider this issue to be dramatic. “Competition will grow, but in this we have never been a monopolist. How effectively we use Georgia’s transit opportunities is a more important question. Geographic advantage alone does not provide commercial benefits, we must effectively use our capabilities and make the railroad, which is now a loss-making company, profitable.” In this context, the new section of the road, which is being built on the Tbilisi-Lars section, is becoming even more important to ensure uninterrupted transit traffic at any time of the year. A two-lane asphalt concrete road with a length of 22.7 kilometers, connecting the villages of Kvishkheti and Kobi on opposite sides of the Main Caucasian ridge, will make it possible to bypass the avalanche-prone pass using a nine-kilometer tunnel. The road will cross six bridges and five tunnels, which will shorten the route along this section by a total of 12 kilometers. To travel along this road, instead of an hour, as it is now, it will take 20 minutes. The construction of this road, which the Georgian authorities have called a “historical project”, began in 2019 and should be completed in 2023. The idea to build a tunnel here arose back in the 1970s, during the Soviet Union. This idea was remembered during the reign of President Shevardnadze, in 1997, but the project then did not start, mainly due to lack of funds. During a trip to the border town of Kazbegi in 2012, President Mikheil Saakashvili promised local residents to build a large tunnel to “turn Kazbegi into a small suburb of Tbilisi.” 5/10 The project cost is USD 558 million. It is financed with loans from the Asian Development Bank (ABD) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Construction of a new section and a tunnel on the Georgian Military Highway, March 2021. Photo: JAMnews This project has both opponents and supporters in Georgia. The main argument of the opponents is state security. For some, the new road poses a threat primarily by making it easier for Russia to invade Georgia, as it did in 2008. For example, ex-President Saakashvili, who himself planned to build a tunnel here, changed his mind after joining the opposition and wrote on Facebook that “this is a new Roki tunnel (a tunnel on the border of South Ossetia and Russia, through which Russian troops) … Russia opens a military path for the quick capture of Tbilisi.” Former Deputy Secretary of the Security Council Vano Machavariani generally agrees with Saakashvili’s arguments. “It is important to know who started this project, in whose interests it is, what financial and economic benefits it brings, and most importantly, what risks we may face. The Georgian government still does not have answers to these questions and considers this road to be an exclusively economic or transport project,” says Matchavariani. Giga Bedineishvili believes that Georgia should use any profitable trade relations with Russia in its own interests, but it is also necessary to assess certain military risks: “The road must be built, but we must also think about how to protect ourselves in case of danger. This does not mean that we should not build a road or break off commercial relations. On the contrary, we will be able to de-occupy Georgia only when we are economically stronger. Therefore, we must use any profitable trade with Russia to our advantage, but at the same time know how to act in the event of an attack.” 6/10 Expert Paata Tsagareishvili says that the construction of the new road will significantly improve tourist flow, although the benefits for freight traffic will be small: “Traffic for tourists along the old road will, of course, be unloaded, because trucks will only move along the new route.