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.

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