Russia’s Row With Georgia Plays Out in South Pacific
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When Tuvalu, a string of atolls in the Pacific Ocean with a population of 11,000, received fresh water from a Russian-backed breakaway region of Georgia last month, the emergency shipment had strings attached.
Georgian officials say the donor, Abkhazia, has been working to persuade aid-dependent countries to recognize it as an independent nation. There were no conditions attached to the water aid, said Juris Gulbis, Abkhazia’s ambassador to the Asia-Pacific. The shipment was a response “to a genuine emergency, our principles prevent us from exploiting human hardship for political gain,” he said by e-mail.