Officials in Moscow and their allies in Abkhazia and South Ossetia all canceled meetings with international diplomats brokering the discussions, casting the future of the talks into question.
While the decision isn’t likely to have a practical effect on people’s freedom to travel, it does signal a potential shift in Brussels’s approach to Georgia’s breakaway territories.
In South Ossetia, meanwhile, the authorities have remained completely silent on the issue. Most residents in both territories hold Russian citizenship, raising the prospect they could be drafted.