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USPS Service bounces from the Kremlin Wall |
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Written by Irakliy Khaburzaniya
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Tuesday, 10 July 2007 |
About a month ago Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research (AISER) published an album about a violent conflict that took place in Abkhazia in 1992 – 1993. The album was published in the United States and since the time of publication more than 700 copies have been distributed worldwide. However, recently one of the copies sent to the Republic of Georgia came back.
 The marking on the package indicated that Russian postal service refused to forward it to Georgia. It is still unclear how the package ended up in Russia in the first place. Most probably the U.S. Postal Service chose Russia as one of the routing points on the way to Georgia. Even during World War II postal services have been known to deliver letters into camps of prisoners of war. Today many tones of mail are being delivered to the American soldiers in Iraq and in other places of active military fighting but the U.S. Postal service was unable to penetrate the wall of Kremlin’s outrageous behavior. The return of the package has a symbolic meaning in that the album contains the names of Russian war criminals such as Basaev, Sigutkin, Sosnaliev, Lebed and others who participated in ethnic cleansing of Georgian population of Abkhazia. Russia, over and over, tramples on human rights and ignores the rest of the world. It is one thing to sever postal communications with Georgia – this fact, though unprecedented, comes as no surprise as Russia is trying to annex Georgian territory – but to refuse the delivery of a package going from the United States to Georgia is simply a political insult. This kind of behavior will add no allies to Russia, and I, as the sender of the package, am utterly disgusted with the despotic behavior of Russian government. It should also be noted that none of the packages sent to addresses in Russia has been delivered to their destination. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 July 2007 )
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The marking on the package indicated that Russian postal service refused to forward it to Georgia. It is still unclear how the package ended up in Russia in the first place. Most probably the U.S. Postal Service chose Russia as one of the routing points on the way to Georgia. Even during World War II postal services have been known to deliver letters into camps of prisoners of war. Today many tones of mail are being delivered to the American soldiers in Iraq and in other places of active military fighting but the U.S. Postal service was unable to penetrate the wall of Kremlin’s outrageous behavior. The return of the package has a symbolic meaning in that the album contains the names of Russian war criminals such as Basaev, Sigutkin, Sosnaliev, Lebed and others who participated in ethnic cleansing of Georgian population of Abkhazia. Russia, over and over, tramples on human rights and ignores the rest of the world. It is one thing to sever postal communications with Georgia – this fact, though unprecedented, comes as no surprise as Russia is trying to annex Georgian territory – but to refuse the delivery of a package going from the United States to Georgia is simply a political insult. This kind of behavior will add no allies to Russia, and I, as the sender of the package, am utterly disgusted with the despotic behavior of Russian government. It should also be noted that none of the packages sent to addresses in Russia has been delivered to their destination.
