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US and Georgia warn Russia
Moscow accused of plotting to arm insurgents in the breakaway Abkhazia region
- AP
- Published: 00:48 March 13, 2008
United Nations: The United States and Georgia on Wednesday advised Russia against supplying arms to militants in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, a move that Russia ruled out for now.
The Russian-backed province of Abkhazia has been independently run since 1993, when two years of fighting with Georgian troops ended in a ceasefire. Two-thirds of the residents in Abkhazia hold Russian passports and it is one of two Georgian regions - the other is South Ossetia - seeking independence or union with Russia.
US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad said the United States supports Georgia and regrets Russia's decision to withdraw from an agreement imposing sanctions on Abkhazia.
"Most alarming is the prospect that Russia's withdrawal from sanctions could lead to arms tranfers to the separatists," he said.
"Russia's decision has to be considered as an effort to legitimise the results of ethnic cleansing," Georgia's UN Ambassador Irakli Alasania told a news conference at UN headquarters. "Russia's impartiality and credibility is obviously undermined." Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who is president of the Security Council this month, said his nation was "not hastening to try to emulate the example of Kosovo". But, he added, Russia would not break an arms embargo by supplying weapons for Abkhazia.
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