Georgians challenging Russia's border encroachment | DW Documentary

Since the turn of the millennium, Georgia has been drawing closer to both NATO and EU. Moscow does not like this, and wants to hinder Georgia’s growing affiliation with the West. Many Georgians fear their homeland is being gradually annexed by their far larger neighbor.

The world has understandably focused on the war in Ukraine, which initially began after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Meanwhile, Georgia has been subject to a different kind of Russian aggression: creeping occupation. A brief war with Russia in 2008 saw the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia break away definitively from Georgia. Since then, Moscow has effectively controlled the areas. "About 20% of our country was occupied by Russia after the war,” says David Katsarava, "but the occupation did not end in 2008.”

In violation of international law, a growing number of border fences are being erected on Georgian territory. They divide villages and separate local people from their fields, friends and relatives. What’s more, reports David Katsarava, the border itself is quietly being shifted further and further into Georgia. The government in Tbilisi appears powerless to take any action - which is why David Katsarava, a former actor, set up a civilian patrol group in 2017.

He and his group are up against heavily armed Russian security forces manning the disputed border. Anyone who comes too close to them faces arrest - an especially acute problem where there is no border fence. Shepherd Gogi Papitashvili no longer knows where he can send his cattle to graze. His pastures by the South Ossetian demarcation line are shrinking as the occupiers continue to advance. He’s already been arrested by them three times. David Katsarava and his volunteer group go on patrol almost daily along the occupation line to document the occupiers’ illegal activities - and, as a last resort, to try to stop them.

[This documentary was originally released in 2021]

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