LOWER ESHERA, GEORGIA — In this half-abandoned place of rusting ports and skeleton homes, there is a land that is recognized by nobody.
Fifteen years since its bloody war with Georgia, the breakaway republic of Abkhazia is a surreal spot where Soviet isolation lingers, the Cold War never ended and people cling to facades of statehood.
Now, with Russia and the United States engaged in a high-stakes power grab in the former Soviet Union, this forlorn slip of lush beaches and snowy mountains has emerged as a hub of new tensions between the Cold War enemies.
To the dismay of U.S.-backed Georgia, which still considers Abkhazia to be part of it, Moscow has already distributed passports to nearly all the people here and encouraged them to vote in Russian elections. Tensions have ramped up in recent weeks, after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, a traditional Russian ally. Moscow bitterly objected, warning that Kosovo's example would embolden other breakaway regions and destabilize Europe.
Russia turned to Abkhazia to drive its point home. Moscow suddenly freed this place from harsh sanctions and hinted that it might soon recognize Abkhazian independence.
"We were flying up to the sky with happiness," said Tamara Ezugbaya, head of this seaside village and the mother of five sons, four of whom died fighting Georgia in the early 1990s war.
But among leaders here, there is a lurking wariness of Russian motives. The powerful northern neighbor is more interested in territorial expansion than in Abkhaz independence, they fear, and may simply absorb Abkhazia.
Russia's attachment to Abkhazia is both sentimental and strategic. Soviet-era vacations in the pristine mountains and on the balmy beaches of Abkhazia are still a fresh memory for many Russians. Soviet leaders such as Stalin and Khrushchev vacationed in private dachas here, and many Russians feel a fond entitlement to this strip of fertile, subtropical land where the Caucasus Mountains slip off to the Black Sea. Russia's interest is also piqued by the steady encroachment of Western military might into Eastern Europe.
With Georgia striving to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, many observers believe Russia is empowering breakaway republics on its border -- Abkhazia and similarly strife-laden South Ossetia, also claimed by Georgia -- in order to build a buffer zone between itself and its Western-armed neighbor.
