Russian parliament recognises breakaway Georgian regions

[ejaz007]

Russian parliament recognises breakaway Georgian regions
Moscow ready to break ties with Nato: Menvedev; Russia making an attempt to change Europe’s borders by force: Saakashvili
Tuesday, August 26, 2008


MOSCOW/LONDON: The Russian parliament voted on Monday to recognise two breakaway Georgian regions as independent nations and Moscow toughened its line on the West as the United States said Vice President Dick Cheney would visit Georgia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was ready to break with Nato while tensions were underscored by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia would withdraw from some WTO trade accords.

Russia’s military intervention in Georgia has particularly worried Europe and the European Union has called a special summit for next Monday, while France expressed concern at reports of looting and intimidation in the flashpoint region of South Ossetia.

With Russian troops still deep in Georgia, both houses of the Russian parliament passed motions urging Medvedev to recognise the independence of South Ossetia—where the conflict began this month—and Abkhazia.

The two regions are internationally recognised as part of Georgia, where Russian troops rolled in on August 8 to fight off a Georgian offensive to retake South Ossetia. Addressing the Federation Council upper house, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said Russia had saved his region from “genocide.”

He asserted there was more political and legal legitimacy to recognising South Ossetia’s independence than there had been for Kosovo, the Serbian province which broke free with EU and US backing.

Abkhaz leader, Sergei Bagapsh, said: “Neither Abkhazia nor South Ossetia will ever again live in one state with Georgia.” The final decision on recognition rests with Medvedev.

But he has already signalled his support for independence and on Monday he mentioned the South Ossetia case when he said a dispute with Moldova over the Transdniestr region could be settled.

Medvedev told Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin at a meeting at the Black Sea resort of Sochi that the dispute over Transdniestr, which lies on Moldova’s eastern edge and where there are Russian troops, should be viewed in the context of the Georgia conflict.

Events in South Ossetia showed “how dangerous such so-called frozen conflicts can be, given that the Georgian leadership, as they say, went crazy,” Medvedev said, according to Interfax news agency.

Transdniestr fought a brief independence war after the Soviet Union’s collapse but is not internationally recognised. The Russian parliament vote heightened international concern. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russia was making “an attempt to change Europe’s borders by force,” in an interview with French newspaper Liberation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the vote was “worrying” and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called on him to be “particularly prudent” in his decision. “That decision is not going to help things, it only adds to the tension in the region,” a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

The European Union signalled growing impatience with Russia when French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a special European summit on the Georgia crisis for September 1.

A US destroyer, the USS McFaul, carrying relief supplies arrived at the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday and in a new show of US support, the White House said Vice President Cheney would visit Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan next week.

Cheney will be the most senior US official to visit the region since the crisis erupted, plunging relations between Moscow and the West to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.

Russia has accused Nato countries of using humanitarian aid as “cover” for a build-up of naval forces in the Black Sea.

Medvedev said Russia was prepared for a full break in relations with Nato but urged the Western alliance to avert a rupture.

“We will take any decision including up to a complete break in relations” if Nato decides to suspend cooperation with Russia, Medvedev was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Russia withdrew tanks, artillery and hundreds of troops from their most advanced positions in Georgia on Friday. But Russian troops still control access to the port city of Poti, south of Abkhazia, and have established other checkpoints around South Ossetia.

Russia claims a six-point peace plan brokered by France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy gives it the right to leave “peacekeepers” deep inside Georgia in a buffer zone.

Russian parliament recognises breakaway Georgian regions

 

[dr.umer]

Russian threat to Nato supply route in Afghanistan​

Russia played a trump card in its strategic poker game with the West yesterday by threatening to suspend an agreement allowing Nato to take supplies and equipment to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia.

The agreement was struck at a Nato summit in April to provide an alternative supply route to the road between the Afghan capital and the Pakistani border, which has come under attack from militants on both sides of the frontier this year.

Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, told The Times in an interview that he believed the deal was no longer valid because Russia suspended military cooperation with Nato last week over its support for Georgia.

Asked if the move by Russia invalidated the agreement, he said: “Of course. Why not? If there is a suspension of military cooperation, this is military cooperation.”

Mr Kabulov also suggested that the stand-off over Georgia could lead Russia to review agreements allowing Nato members to use Russian airspace and to maintain bases in the former Soviet Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

“No one with common sense can expect to cooperate with Russia in one part of the world while acting against it in another,” he said.

His remarks are likely to alarm Nato commanders because the Taleban have been targeting the supply routes of the alliance this year, mimicking tactics used against the British in 1841 and the Soviet Union two decades ago. Nato imports about 70 per cent of its food, fuel, water and equipment from Pakistan via the Khyber Pass, and flies in much of the rest through Russian airspace via bases in Central Asia. It has not started using the “northern corridor” because the deal – covering nonmilitary supplies and nonlethal military equipment – has yet to be cleared with the Central Asian states involved.

The need for an alternative route was highlighted by recent attacks on Nato supply convoys, including one that destroyed 36 fuel tankers in a northwestern Pakistani border town in March. Four US helicopter engines worth $13 million (£7 million) went missing on the way from Kabul to Pakistan in April. Last week militants killed ten French soldiers on the same route 30 miles from Kabul.

Western officials fear that such attacks could increase in the power vacuum in Pakistan created by the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as President last week and the collapse of the coalition Government yesterday.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President-turned-Prime-Minister, was the first foreign leader to telephone President Bush after the attacks on September 11, 2001, and has supported the War on Terror ever since. The Kremlin has fears about the spread of Islamic extremism into Central Asia and Muslim regions of Russia, especially Chechnya, where it fought two wars with Muslim rebels in the 1990s.

However, many Russian officials have bitter memories of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan and strong reservations about the US presence in Central Asia, which they see as their strategic backyard.

“It’s not in Russia’s interests for Nato to be defeated and leave behind all these problems,” Mr Kabulov, who worked at the Soviet Embassy in Kabul from 1983 to 1987, said. “We’d prefer Nato to complete its job and then leave this unnatural geography.

“But at the same time, we’ll be the last ones to moan about Nato’s departure.”

A Nato spokesman declined to respond to Mr Kabulov’s comments and said that Russia had not informed the alliance officially of any decision to annul the northern corridor agreement.

 

[IceCold]

Russian threat to Nato supply route in Afghanistan​

Russia played a trump card in its strategic poker game with the West yesterday by threatening to suspend an agreement allowing Nato to take supplies and equipment to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia.

The agreement was struck at a Nato summit in April to provide an alternative supply route to the road between the Afghan capital and the Pakistani border, which has come under attack from militants on both sides of the frontier this year.

Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, told The Times in an interview that he believed the deal was no longer valid because Russia suspended military cooperation with Nato last week over its support for Georgia.

Asked if the move by Russia invalidated the agreement, he said: “Of course. Why not? If there is a suspension of military cooperation, this is military cooperation.”

Mr Kabulov also suggested that the stand-off over Georgia could lead Russia to review agreements allowing Nato members to use Russian airspace and to maintain bases in the former Soviet Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

“No one with common sense can expect to cooperate with Russia in one part of the world while acting against it in another,” he said.

His remarks are likely to alarm Nato commanders because the Taleban have been targeting the supply routes of the alliance this year, mimicking tactics used against the British in 1841 and the Soviet Union two decades ago. Nato imports about 70 per cent of its food, fuel, water and equipment from Pakistan via the Khyber Pass, and flies in much of the rest through Russian airspace via bases in Central Asia. It has not started using the “northern corridor” because the deal – covering nonmilitary supplies and nonlethal military equipment – has yet to be cleared with the Central Asian states involved.

The need for an alternative route was highlighted by recent attacks on Nato supply convoys, including one that destroyed 36 fuel tankers in a northwestern Pakistani border town in March. Four US helicopter engines worth $13 million (£7 million) went missing on the way from Kabul to Pakistan in April. Last week militants killed ten French soldiers on the same route 30 miles from Kabul.

Western officials fear that such attacks could increase in the power vacuum in Pakistan created by the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as President last week and the collapse of the coalition Government yesterday.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President-turned-Prime-Minister, was the first foreign leader to telephone President Bush after the attacks on September 11, 2001, and has supported the War on Terror ever since. The Kremlin has fears about the spread of Islamic extremism into Central Asia and Muslim regions of Russia, especially Chechnya, where it fought two wars with Muslim rebels in the 1990s.

However, many Russian officials have bitter memories of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan and strong reservations about the US presence in Central Asia, which they see as their strategic backyard.

“It’s not in Russia’s interests for Nato to be defeated and leave behind all these problems,” Mr Kabulov, who worked at the Soviet Embassy in Kabul from 1983 to 1987, said. “We’d prefer Nato to complete its job and then leave this unnatural geography.

“But at the same time, we’ll be the last ones to moan about Nato’s departure.”

A Nato spokesman declined to respond to Mr Kabulov’s comments and said that Russia had not informed the alliance officially of any decision to annul the northern corridor agreement.

This will be really interesting. I was wondering that if we could threat to do the same if this BS of Pakistan not doing enough isn't stopped or for that matter the continuous fed Western Media with propaganda against the PA and ISI is not stopped. Both NATO and the US could some to their knees if this happens.

 

[gpit]

West condemns Russia over Georgia

Western leaders have condemned strongly Russia's decision to recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

US President George Bush warned his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, that his "irresponsible decision" was exacerbating tensions in the region.

Georgia said Russia was seeking to "change Europe's borders by force".

Earlier, Mr Medvedev told the BBC that Russia had been obliged to act because of Georgia's "genocide" of separatists.

He also said Moscow had felt obliged to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as other countries had done with Kosovo earlier this year.

The president said Russia's relations with the West were deteriorating sharply and a new Cold War could not be ruled out, but that his country did not want one.

"There are no winners in a Cold War," he told the BBC's Bridget Kendall in an exclusive interview in the Russian town of Sochi.

The separatist authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have had de facto independence since the early 1990s, have thanked Russia.

Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake South Ossetia by force.

Russian forces subsequently launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia and an EU-brokered ceasefire.

'No easy choice'

In an announcement on Russian television, President Medvedev said he had signed a decree recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and called on other states to follow his example.

Mr Medvedev said he had "taken into account the expression of free will by the Ossetian and Abkhaz peoples" and accused Georgia of failing over many years to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

"That was no easy choice to make, but it is the sole chance of saving people's lives," he added.

International dismay at Russia's declaration came almost immediately.

President Bush said Russia should "reconsider this irresponsible decision" and "live up to its international commitments".

"This decision is inconsistent with numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions that Russia has voted for in the past, and is also inconsistent with the French-brokered six-point ceasefire agreement which President Medvedev signed," he said in a statement.

"Russia's action only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations," he added.

"In accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions that remain in force, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are within the internationally recognised borders of Georgia, and they must remain so."

France, the current holder of the presidency of the European Union, also condemned Russia's decision and called for a political solution.

"We think it is against the territorial integrity of Georgia and we cannot accept it," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.

Nato's Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the announcement was a "direct violation" of numerous UN Security Council resolutions on Georgia which Russia itself had endorsed.

Earlier, Russia cancelled a visit by Mr de Hoop Scheffer, one of a series of measures to suspend co-operation with the alliance.

Russia's ambassador to Nato said the trip would be delayed until relations between the two were clarified.

'Completely illegal'

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili accused Russia of trying to "break the Georgian state, undermine the fundamental values of Georgia, and to wipe Georgia from the map".

"Today's step by Russia is completely illegal and will have no legal basis, neither for Georgia nor for the rest of the world," he said.

Mr Saakashvili described the declaration as "the first attempt in Europe after Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union to... change the borders of Europe by force".

Speaking later to the BBC, he said the move had been "a blatant attempt to legalise the results of ethnic cleansing [which] Russian troops are continuing to commit, right now as we speak, and that have been committed during the last several years".

The president accused Russian troops of "throwing out the remaining population, destroying the villages, killing and raping and looting people" in the breakaway regions.

"This is 21st century brutal invasion, and 21st century large-scale ethnic cleansing," he said. "How can the world allow them to get away with this?"

Earlier, the head of European security organisation, the OSCE, Alexander Stubb, also accused Russia of "trying to empty" South Ossetia of Georgians.

Mr Saakashvili said the international community had to challenge "Russian aggression" in the strongest possible terms.

"This is not between Georgia and Russia anymore," he said. "This is an unparalleled challenge by Russia of international law and order."

He said the response required Western aid to help Georgia recover, an international peacekeeping force on the ground, and the speeding up of his country's integration of Nato.

In the South Ossetia and Abkhazia, however, Moscow's move was warmly welcomed.

The leader of South Ossetia's separatist government, Eduard Kokoity, said he would ask Moscow to set up a military base on his territory.

In the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali there were scenes of jubilation while residents in Abkhazia took to the streets to celebrate the news, firing into the air.

Cold War fears

In an interview with the BBC at his residency in Sochi, on the border with Abkhazia, Mr Medvedev later said Russia had been obliged to act following a "genocide" started by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili against separatists in South Ossetia in August.

The president compared Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to the West's recognition of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.

He also denied that Russia had breached the ceasefire agreement with Georgia, saying pursuing the security of the two regions included addressing their status.

"The most important thing was to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe to save the lives of people for whom we are responsible, because most of them they are Russian citizens," he said. "So we had to take a decision recognising the two states as independent."

Although most of Russia's forces pulled out of the rest of Georgia last Friday, it is maintaining a presence both within the two rebel regions and in buffer zones imposed round their boundaries.

Some Russian troops also continue to operate near the Black Sea port of Poti, south of Abkhazia, where Russia says it will carry out regular inspections of cargo.

The US said on Tuesday that its warships would deliver aid to Georgia's port of Poti, which is under Russian control. The move could mean US and Russian forces coming face to face.

BBC NEWS | Europe | West condemns Russia over Georgia

 

[gpit]

Medvedev Seeks Support From China, Allies on Georgia (Update3) Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

By Alex Nicholson and Lyubov Pronina

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meets his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao today, seeking support from Asian allies for Russia's recognition of two Georgian regions, a move widely condemned in the West.

Medvedev will discuss ``key international issues'' with Hu and other leaders from the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, a Kremlin official said today by phone.

Russia's decision to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia yesterday drew condemnation from world leaders. U.S. President George W. Bush asked Medvedev to ``reconsider this irresponsible decision.'' It would be ``logical'' for Medvedev to discuss the issue during two days of meetings in Dushanbe, the Kremlin official said.

``Russia's main aim is to get support from the organization for its military action and approval in one form or another for recognizing South Ossetian independence,'' said Yevgeny Volk, an analyst in Moscow for the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. ``It is clear that Russia is using it as a counterweight to the West in the conflict and its recognition of South Ossetia.''

While Russia would seek to win a formal recognition from members of the group, Volk said such a decision for countries like China and India, which have separatist regions of their own, would amount to ``chopping the branch they sit on.''

Ukraine Refusal

In addition to Russia and China, the organization's members are Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Countries with observer status include India, Iran and Pakistan. The meeting in Dushanbe will discuss terrorism and drug trafficking from Afghanistan, the Kremlin press service said.

Ukraine today refused to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. President Viktor Yushchenko said ``we regret Russia's decision'' on the regions. European countries including Germany, the U.K., Italy, France and Sweden criticized the Russian move.

Medvedev called his decision on the breakaway regions an ``obvious'' move to protect his country's borders. Russia's acceptance of the independence of the pro-Moscow regions, which broke away from Georgia in wars in the early 1990s, followed its military drubbing of Georgia this month after leaders in Tbilisi tried to retake South Ossetia by force.

Navy Visit

The missile cruiser ``Moskva'' and two other warships from Russia's Black Sea fleet docked today at the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi on the Russian navy's first ``official visit'' following Medvedev's decision to recognize the region's independence, Interfax reported, citing Garri Kupalba, Abkhazia's deputy defense minister.

Russia has no plans to increase its naval presence in the Black Sea as ships from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization arrive to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of Russia's General Staff, told reporters in Moscow. The arrival of NATO ships is aggravating the situation in the region, he said.

By recognizing the regions, Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are engaging in tit-for-tat gamesmanship with the West over Kosovo's February declaration of independence, which was backed by the U.S. and much of Europe and opposed by Russia as an illegal affront to its ally Serbia. Georgia is a pro- Western democracy supported by the U.S. and Europe in part because it controls a Caspian Sea oil pipeline that bypasses Russia.

`Special Case'

The Georgian situation is a ``special case'' that can't be compared with Kosovo, Medvedev told the BBC yesterday. Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia cited Kosovo as a precedent in their bids for statehood.

Top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, conferred among themselves yesterday and with allies on options for a response, according to the State Department. The Group of Seven industrialized nations is considering a statement on the crisis, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russia's recognition of the regions had ``no legal force'' and renewed his call for his country's ``speedy'' entry into NATO. Russia views further eastward expansion of NATO as a security threat.

`Russian Targets'

South Ossetia, about half the size of Puerto Rico, has a population of about 70,000. Russian officials say 2,100 civilians died in recent fighting in the region, which is connected to Russia's North Ossetia region via a tunnel through the Caucasus Mountains.

Abkhazia, slightly larger than the U.S. state of Delaware, has about 200,000 people. Georgia says about 250,000 ethnic Georgians fled a war there in the early 1990s and haven't been allowed to return.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he assumes that Ukraine and Moldova are now ``Russian targets,'' following the Kremlin's recognition of Georgia's breakaway regions.

Kouchner, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, said it ``will take 20 years'' to resolve the conflict in Georgia following the war with Russia.

``There are other targets that we may assume to be Russian targets, in particular Crimea, Ukraine, Moldova,'' Kouchner said in an interview on Europe 1 radio today. The Crimea is a part of Ukraine where Russia has leased a port for its Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Dushanbe via the Moscow newsroom at lpronina@bloomberg.net; Alex Nicholson in Moscow at anicholson6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 27, 2008 07:36 EDT

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It is a testy problem for China to deal. I think the Russians are too hasty. They could probably harvest more...