If you look at Tskhinval from the top of one of the surrounding hills you will see brand-new roofs scattered all over the city: green, blue, but more often red. VIP guests brought here by helicopter probably see the same cheerful picture.
On the ground Tskhinval vintage 2009 greets you with five-storied apartment blocks with gaping holes, the charred remains of houses, roofs that look as if they have been crushed by some monster, and walls pock-marked with bullets and shell fragments. The destroyed parliament building looks exactly the same as when Valery Gergiyev gave a concert here shortly after the war. One has a feeling that the war has ended just now and not a year ago.
There are some rare exceptions. The Government building has been restored, a school has been built back, and a residential compound is being built at the entrance to the city from the direction of Russia. The hospital has been restored from outside and is being reconstructed from inside, although there are still shell holes in its walls. Here and there one comes across construction pits for new apartment blocks, but so far the work has progressed only as far as the foundation.
Some private houses are being repaired, some are being pulled down and built anew, but many people have to do it at their own expense as they have lost all hope of getting compensation for their lost property.
“Nothing has changed. Take a walk and you’ll see it yourself. Even the telephone system is as bad as it was during the war, when we could not get in touch with one another,” a South Ossetian solder told me on condition of anonymity.
THE SCARS OF TWO WARS AND HUMANITARIAN AID WITH A BROKEN ARM
Meanwhile there are still ruins of houses that were destroyed during the 1992 war and people live in them in spite of missing walls and broken roofs. This may be why the locals when asked about the war startle visitors by asking, do you mean the 1992 or 2008 war?
“My house was hit by a shell back in 1992. We got no compensation then. We just patched up the roof, and even that was in vain because our house was hit again last year. No compensation for that either. I live in a rented flat. What else can I do?” says an elderly man by the name of Vitaly Tabuyev.
“Some Georgians used to live here, who needs their house?” the local people explained to me the reason why the ruins of Georgian homes have remained untouched. One can see such houses not only in Tskhinval, but also in several empty Georgian villages outside the city: Some houses have been burned down, others bulldozed. That is the aftermath of the 2008 war.
The five-day August war has left nothing of the house of a 64-year-old Ossetian woman, Svetlana Naniyeva, who has to stay with her neighbours, the family of Zelim Dzhussoyev, whose house was half destroyed by an earthquake. There are especially many ruined houses in this neighborhood known, for some reason, as the Jewish Quarter. Svetlana says 49 houses have been burned down. The residents have gone to stay with their relatives and friends, but some have stayed and live in tents.
Svetlana says she has received a lump sum of 50,000 roubles, which of course is not enough to buy a new flat, and on one occasion, immediately after the war, humanitarian aid was handed out. Sveltana remembers that episode well: an old ailing woman, she was caught in the scramble for food and clothes, fell and broke her arm.
WE SLEEP BETTER, BUT ANXIETY IS STILL THERE
Opinions vary among the locals as to whether a new war with Georgia is likely.
“I feel that something can start again any day. I am scared when a helicopter flies by even though I know it is ours,” confesses Yulia Kudziyeva. She had moved to Tskhinval from Saratov 47 years ago and has survived two wars.
“Nothing is going to happen. What can happen if there are so many soldiers around?” her husband Yakov argues.
The same question asked by a RIA Novosti correspondent sparked a lively discussion among the old folks sitting on benches in the square in front of the destroyed theatre building. Some pin their hopes on the Russian soldiers, others think the Georgians may spring a surprise, but they all speak about Russia with hope and gratitude.
The military say provocations are possible, but they differ in assessing their possible scale. “There will be only minor provocations. They are not crazy, they realize that Russia has a strong presence here,” a border guard said, also on condition of anonymity.
“They have good special forces, which should not be underestimated. They are trained to NATO standards. If they launch a surprise attack…See those poplars? There is a sniper sitting there, it’s a Georgian post. Our part is exposed to their fire,” a Russian peacekeeper points to the trees a hundred meters from the location of his unit, which came under a massive attack in August 2008 and for some reason is still not protected by a wall from the Georgian side.
“Still, we have been sleeping better since Russian troops came [to South Ossetia],” says a North Ossetian volunteer who fought in the August 2008 war.
LIFE GOES ON, BUT PRICES ARE HIGH
In spite of the disarray and fear of new Georgian attacks the people of Tskhinval go about their daily life. Shops and markets are open. Children and adults play football in the city stadium. People move about the city, swim in the Liakhva River and catch the sun on its rugged banks.
“In the old times Georgians used to come here to work. Now we have to do everything ourselves, and we seem to manage all right,” says Lena, who owns a bakery on Moskovskaya Street, without interrupting her baking of local lavash breads. Part of her house was destroyed in August 2008 and the family are restoring it at their own expense.
Before the war Georgians came not only to work but also to sell stuff in the markets. The locals admit that the prices were lower then than they are today because now many products are brought from Russia.
“Tomatoes used to cost 15 rubles a kilo, cucumbers, 10 rubles, and now both cost 50-60 rubles. Rice used to cost 20 rubles, now it costs 50 rubels. Beef costs 180 rubles a kilo, and it used to be 80 rubles,” complains Svetlana Naniyeva, who subsists on her pension of 4,000 rubles.
Your correspondent could see for himself that the prices in Tskhinval are high. He discovered that prices in the centre of that small city were almost as high as in Moscow. Perhaps part of the reason is the invasion of visitors – journalists, the military and builders -- who are paid more than the locals. But the locals I have talked to diplomatically did not mention that reason.
