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Russia, NATO Narrowly Avoid Falling Out
Russia and NATO were on the brink of a complete breakdown in relations yesterday. The foreign ministers of the alliance member states met in Brussels to discuss relations with Russia in light of the situation in Georgia and concluded that it “won’t continue with business as usual” with Russia. NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced that the Russia-NATO Council was suspended until Russian troops were withdrawn from Georgia. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the organization of supporting a criminal regime and noted that the Russia-NATO Council “wasn’t founded to teach Russia how to behave toward the Georgian leadership.” Russian representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Kommersant that retaliatory sanctions are possible.
U.S. Secretary of State led the charge against Russia, beginning with sharply-worded statements to journalists on the plane over to Brussels. At the meeting, Rice also spoke of Russia’s increasing aviation presence in near Alaska. “It is not cost free,” Rice commented. “This is a very dangerous game, and perhaps one the Russians might want to reconsider.” Moscow responded to that statement through Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn yesterday. “That is a Russian issue,” Nogovitsyn said. “The decision on those flights was made by the supreme commander. Strategic aviation will no longer remain laid up. There is nothing criminal about it. We’ve been flying there for half a year already.”
Sources in Western diplomatic circles say the NATO session was tense. The United States, some of the Scandinavian countries and the vast majority of Eastern European countries were in favor of taking a hard line against Russian actions and quickly providing Georgia with a membership action plan. Western European diplomats, in particular French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, opposed a harsh position. The final statement from the four-hour-long session was a compromise.
That document mentions Georgia’s territorial integrity in its first paragraph. It mentions the need for an international discussion on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, without acknowledging the possibility of changing their status, as Moscow has insisted on. Georgia is called a “valuable partner.” Russia’s actions are called “disproportionate” and out of keeping with those of peacekeepers. The document winds up with the “no more business as usual” statement. However, no sanctions against Russia were mentioned, and Georgia was not promised a membership action plan in December. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed opposition to Russia’s isolation and exclusion from the G8 to journalists.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after the session. Medvedev told the French leader that Russian forces will stay in Georgia until August 22.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 20, 2008
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