“…teams of young Russian men were swarming around a few damaged buildings, wearing neat uniforms with labels that said “Special Construction.” They were cutting glass to replace windows, putting coral-colored paint on a primary school and spackling hundreds of bullet holes. A caravan of trucks passed through town, distributing “Genuine Russian Bread” and a popular Moscow daily, “Russian Newspaper.”
The Soviet-era House of Printing has been remade into an International Press Center, and journalists now receive press accreditation by the “State Commission for Information and Press of the Republic of South Ossetia.” An exhibit titled “Genocide” appeared this week, with photos of injured children and burned and mangled bodies.
There was no glass in most of the windows, though, and the bathrooms remained a reminder that a war had occurred.
“I would like it to maximally resemble civilization,” said Alexei Martynov, who runs the press center. Despite the dust and heat, Mr. Martynov appears every day in a fresh business suit and tie, providing a contrast with the thick-necked Ossetian militiamen who lounge in front of the building, Kalashnikovs propped beside them.
Mr. Martynov — the director of a nonprofit group in Moscow called the International Institute for Newly Established States — said it was time for South Ossetia to shrug off of its warrior mentality and usher in a period of “managers and engineers.” He said it could prove to be a model for a number of “states with unclear political status,” like Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova that has also moved to reunite with Russia. One possibility would be to make it a tax haven, a strategy that has worked for Monaco, Andorra and Liechtenstein, he said.
