World | Other World Stories
Russia faces diplomatic isolation
Asian allies fail to back moscow as tension is heightened by naval build-up
- Agencies
- Published: 23:44 August 28, 2008
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Why I had to recognise Georgia's breakaway regions
Why I had to recognise Georgia's breakaway regions
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Nato and Russia must draw a line
Nato and Russia must draw a line
Dushanbe/Paris: Russia faced diplomatic isolation over its military action against Georgia on Thursday, with its Asian allies failing to offer support and France saying EU leaders were considering the imposition of sanctions.
Moscow accused the West of heightening tension by a naval build-up in the Black Sea, and said talk of punishing Russia for recognising the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions was the product of a "sick" and "confused" imagination.
The Group of Seven rich nations condemned Russia's "continued occupation of Georgia" and a group of Asian allies led by China, meeting at a regional summit, failed to follow Russia's lead on independence for two breakaway regions of Georgia.
Belarus support
Belarus, Russia's closest ex-Soviet ally, gave the clearest support, with President Alexander Lukashenko saying the Kremlin "had no other moral choice" but to recognise the Georgian regions. But he too stopped short of recognising them himself.
The crisis flared early this month when Georgia tried to retake by force its separatist province of South Ossetia and Russia launched an overwhelming counter-attack.
Russian forces swept the Georgian army out of the rebel region and are still occupying some areas of Georgia proper. On Tuesday Moscow announced that it was recognising South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states.
France, the current European Union president, has called a meeting of EU heads of government on Monday to discuss the Georgian crisis.
"Sanctions are being considered and many other means as well," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in response to a question at a news conference.
"We are trying to elaborate a strong text that will show our determination not to accept (what is happening in Georgia)," he said. "Of course, there are also sanctions."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed such talk, noting that Kouchner had also suggested recently that Russia might soon attack Moldova, Ukraine and the Crimea.
"But that is a sick imagination, and probably that applies to sanctions as well. I think it is a demonstration of complete confusion," Lavrov told reporters in Tajikistan.
The United States and Europe demand Russia respect a French-brokered ceasefire and withdraw all its troops from Georgia, including a disputed buffer zone imposed by Moscow.
Black Sea manoeuvres
Analysts see Moscow's actions as a bid to halt expanding Western influence in the Caucasus, a major oil and gas transit route from the Caspian Sea to the West that bypasses Russia. As the diplomatic manoeuvring gathered pace, Moscow also expressed alarm at a naval build-up in the Black Sea, an area normally dominated by its southern fleet.
Two US warships are already off the coast of Georgia to show support for their ally and Washington has ordered the flagship of its Sixth Fleet, the sophisticated joint command ship Mount Whitney, to the area, saying it will deliver humanitarian supplies.
The chief spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told reporters on Wednesday evening that deployment was "something that can hardly be explained ... Let us hope that we do not see any direct confrontation."
Nato insists the only Black Sea presence under the auspices of the Western military alliance is a group of four warships - one Spanish, one German, one Polish and one American - which are on a long-planned routine exercise.
Burials
In Tbilisi, Georgians buried their war dead and prayed for their country on a religious holiday. The remains of 10 of the 263 soldiers killed in the conflict were lowered into a single grave on a hill overlooking the capital, after a haunting funeral march played by a military band.
"I don't know which one is my son," cried an elderly woman holding a photograph of a man in military uniform. "We've been waiting for him for two weeks."
Though it easily won the war, Russia has struggled to win diplomatic support for its actions in Georgia, which have been condemned by the United States and European powers. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev failed to secure support for his action at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
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