>Russia wins backing from China
>By Alexander Osipovich
>August 28, 2008 08:00pm
>
>
>RUSSIA today won support from China and Central Asian states in its standoff
>with the West over the Georgia conflict as the European Union said it was
>weighing sanctions against Moscow.
>
>Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped the "united position'' of a
>summit of Central Asian nations would ``serve as a serious signal to those
>who try to turn black into white.''
>
>The West has strongly condemned Russia's military offensive in Georgia this
>month and Medvedev's decision to recognise the breakaway Georgian regions of
>Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
>
>Ratcheting up pressure on Russia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner,
>whose country holds the presidency of the European Union, said the 27-nation
>bloc was preparing sanctions on Moscow.
>
>EU leaders meet on Monday in Brussels for an emergency summit to press
>demands for a further Russian withdrawal from Georgia.
>
>"Sanctions are being considered, and many other means,'' Kouchner said in
>Paris.
>
>China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan voiced
>support for Russia's "active role'' in resolving the conflict in Georgia,
>according to the draft of a joint statement released by the Kremlin.
>
>Leaders from the countries met in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe as the
>Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional group set up in 2001 to
>counter NATO influence in the strategic Central Asia region.
>
>Yesterday, the Group of Seven industrialised powers strongly condemned
>Russia's recognition of the two rebel regions.
>
>"We deplore Russia's excessive use of military force in Georgia and its
>continued occupation of parts of Georgia,'' said the statement from Britain,
>Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
>
>Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith today summoned Russia's ambassador
>to Canberra to urge Moscow to pull its troops in Georgia back to the
>positions they held before the conflict began.
>
>Smith told Ambassador Alexander Blokhin that Russia's decision to recognise
>South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent was unhelpful for Russia's ties
>with the world.
>
>"They had a frank exchange of views,'' the spokeswoman for Smith said.
>
>"Mr Smith stated that Australia respects the territorial integrity of
>Georgia and believes that Russia should abide by ceasefire arrangements and
>return to the positions they occupied (before the conflict began).''
>
>Former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze warned meanwhile that Russia's
>recognition of the regions would boomerang on Moscow.
>
>"They will live to regret it,'' Shevardnadze said in an interview in Japan's
>Asahi Shimbun newspaper, adding that the move would "encourage separatist
>movements within ethnically diverse Russia.''
>
>Russia claims it had to act after Georgia on August 7 launched an offensive
>to retake South Ossetia, an attack that South Ossetia's prosecutor general
>said today had killed 1,692 people, according to the Interfax news agency.
>
>German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today called on Moscow to
>allow an international probe into the allegations of abuses.
>
>''(Moscow) alleges that there atrocities were meted out on the South
>Ossetian population. Russia or South Ossetia must document whether this is
>the case and to what extent,'' Steinmeier told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung
>daily.
>
>On a visit to Ukraine yesterday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband
>warned Russia not to start a new Cold War.
>
>But he also conceded that isolating Russia would be counterproductive
>because the West relied on cooperation with Moscow to tackle global problems
>like climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.
>
>"The Russian president says he is not afraid of a new Cold War. We don't
>want one,'' Miliband said, adding: "He has a big responsibility not to start
>one,'' he added.
>
>Russia has lashed out at the West for ratcheting up tensions in the Black
>Sea and warned that attempts to isolate Moscow could lead to an economic
>backlash.
>
>Officials said they were monitoring a growing NATO naval presence in the
>Black Sea, as the second of three US ships sent to deliver aid arrived in
>Georgia.
>
>Moscow has accused the West of using aid shipments as a cover for rearming
>Georgia after the Russian military surge into Georgia this month left much
>of the Georgian military in tatters.
>
>"Certainly some measures of precaution are being taken,'' said a spokesman
>for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov.
>
>"It's not a common practice to deliver humanitarian aid using battleships.''
>
>In a reminder of Russia's energy muscle, he also warned against trying to
>isolate Moscow.
>
>"Any attempts to jeopardise this atmosphere of cooperation ... would not
>only (have) a negative impact for Russia but will definitely harm the
>economic interests of those states,'' Peskov said.
>
>Russia moved its own naval forces to the Abkhaz port of Sukhumi, where they
>got a rapturous reception from Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh.
>
>In Tbilisi, the secretary of the Georgian national security council,
>Alexander Lomaia, said Russian troops would leave the key Black Sea port of
>Poti today or tomorrow "as a result of international pressure.''
>
>No confirmation of such a move was forthcoming from the Russian side.
>
>In the Georgian port of Batumi, the second of three ships sent by Washington
>arrived with aid for some of the 100,000 people that the UN refugee agency
>estimates have been displaced in the conflict.
>
>http://www.news.com.au/story/0%%2C23599%%2C24256861-401%%2C00.html