What Can Georgia Learn from Ukraine’s Crimean Platform Summit?

On August 23, the Crimean Platform Summit was held in Ukraine. Announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the initiative has the goal of coordinating international efforts to de-occupy the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014. Other countries struggling with Russian adventurism might serve to learn some lessons from the summit. One such country that could particularly benefit is Georgia, which struggles with maintaining the international community’s attention to the issue of the Russian occupation of its territories. Having supportive statements from multiple countries talking about this issue is something that Georgia desperately needs, and Tbilisi can learn from Kyiv’s efforts to garner support from the international community.  What is the Crimea Platform?  Zelensky first introduced the Crimean Platform in fall 2020. During his address to Verkhovna Rada on the internal and external situation in Ukraine, he stated: “The issue of Crimea has been returned to the international agenda. We are creating a ‘Crimean Platform’ format. This is a coordination of international efforts to protect the rights of Crimeans and deoccupy the peninsula. I have already discussed this initiative in detail with representatives of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, and other partners. Many of them are ready to join and take an active part in it.”  One of the main objectives of the summit is to mobilize a more effective international response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. It is a multi-level framework for devising actions that would raise the costs of Russia’s occupation and contradict Moscow’s thesis about the irreversibility of its hold on the peninsula. The initiative also includes the Crimean Platform Expert Network that will work closely with government representatives. The Network Forum launched on August 6, with 180 experts and scholars from 33 countries already expressing their willingness to join. Representatives of 46 countries attended the summit, including 8 presidents, 4 prime ministers, and 17 foreign ministry heads or their deputies. Ukraine was able to deliver on the promise to gather high-level representation from a significant number of countries. The five priority areas for the Crimean Platform were: effectiveness of sanctions, protection of human rights, security of Azov-Black Sea region, overcoming the environmental and economic consequences of the occupation, and consolidation of the international policy of non-recognition. Summit participants issued a joint declaration, in which they condemned the “temporary occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea” and agreed to continue to impose “political, diplomatic and restrictive measures” against Russia. In addition to issuing a declaration, Zelensky opened a Crimean Platform office in Kyiv. According to Ukrainian authorities, Crimean Platform offices will open in several countries.  Connection to Georgia’s Russia Problems This platform is relevant to Georgia because two of Georgia’s breakaway regions are occupied by the Russian Federation. Regardless of how similar the cases of Crimea, Abkhazia, and Tskhinvali (so-called South Ossetia) might be, the bigger issue of Russian occupation is still prevalent both countries. However, unlike in Ukraine, the issue of Russian occupation does not appear to be at the top of Tbilisi’s agenda, and without a government-led initiative, only a small fraction of the international community remains concerned with Georgia's frozen conflicts. Georgia would greatly benefit from creating a similar platform. International Attention. The platform would be a way for Georgia to garner greater international attention for the Russian occupations. Georgia recently marked the 13 th anniversary of the 2008 war with Russia. Even though “creeping occupation” continues on the de facto border with Tskhinvali, part of the international community has deemed the conflict frozen, and, as a result, there aren’t many venues dedicated to discussion of the issue. Peacebuilding efforts, too, are sparce and unsuccessful. Since 2008, 34 villages have been divided by the de facto “border” between Georgia and the Russian-occupied territories. Dozens of, sometimes more than 100, citizens are detained every year for violating the “border regime.”