Medvedev: Russia more forceful after war with Georgia
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev again put the West on notice that Moscow will exert its military and economic might with new determination, saying Saturday that “Russia is a nation to be reckoned with” after its war with Georgia.
Meanwhile, at Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti, Russian forces watched closely Saturday as the U. S. naval ship USS Mount Whitney delivered 17 tons of aid for Georgians displaced by the fighting.
In France, the European Union’s 27 foreign ministers were reluctant to provoke Moscow, with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner saying the EU did not plan to impose sanctions against Russia.
“Russia must remain a partner, it’s our neighbor, it’s a large country, and there is no question to go back to a Cold War situation; that would be a big mistake,” Kouchner said.
In the weeks since Russian forces routed the Georgian army and seized the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Russian officials such as Vladimir Putin, the president and former KGB chief who is now prime minister, have suggested the United States was to blame for the war for helping the Georgian military rebuild.
At a meeting Saturday of the State Council, Medvedev said the world had changed since the beginning of fighting in Georgia last month.
“We have reached a moment of truth. It became a different world after Aug. 8,” he said.
“Russia will never allow anyone to infringe upon the lives and dignity of its citizens. Russia is a nation to be reckoned with from now on,” Medvedev told the council, a government consultative body of largely regional governors.
Medvedev criticized the United States and other Western nations, though not by name, for challenging Russia’s intervention.
“Millions of people supported us, but we’ve heard no words of support and understanding from those who in the same circumstances pontificate about free elections and national dignity and the need to use force to punish an aggressor,” he said.
Vice President Dick Cheney, at an economic meeting Saturday in Italy, blasted Russian actions in the war as an “affront to civilized standards” and said Moscow has given “no satisfactory justification” for invading Georgia.
Cheney also said the expansion of NATO would continue despite Moscow’s opposition, arguing that Russia should welcome its neighbors’ joining an alliance that was not belligerent and whose members were democratic.
U. S. warships completed aid delivery Saturday. Russian officials have questioned whether the aid is a cover for weapons shipments.
“Unfortunately, the situation is like this... the rearming of the Georgian regime, including under the flag of humanitarian aid, is continuing,” Medvedev said.
At the port of Poti, massive Georgian floating crane lifted about 40 pallets stacked with toilet paper, toothpaste, diapers, blankets and other aid off the deck of the USS Mount Whitney, the first Navy ship to travel to Poti since the war.
U. S. naval officers said a Russian warship had trailed the USS Mount Whitney, the flagship of the U. S. Navy’s Mediterranean fleet, across the Black Sea. Russian forces onshore were also scrutinizing the ship from a position just 3 miles away from its anchorage off Poti.
“They’re clearly watching us very, very closely, and I think they’ll be very happy when we leave,” said Capt. Owen Honors, the ship’s commanding officer.
Capt. John Moore, the commander of the task force that has brought some 450 tons of aid to Georgia on three U. S. ships and numerous planes, said the Russian frigate Ladnyy had trailed the Whitney about 4, 000 yards away for the entire Black Sea trip. The Russian boat remained in international waters after the U. S. ship crossed Friday into Georgian waters 12 miles from Poti, he said.
At one Russian position near Poti, several light tanks and armored personnel carriers bearing peacekeeping insignias could be seen Saturday behind a high earthen berm and a razor-wire fence. An excavator dug new holes nearby.
These dug-in Russian troops were still on Georgian territory weeks after an EU peace deal required them to leave.
Soldiers refused to let an Associated Press reporter speak to the commander but knew what he planned to ask.
“Yes, we saw the ship. It’s a very good ship,” one officer responded coyly. He refused to give his name or rank.
Georgia, a South Caucasus nation long dominated by Russia, sits astride a strategic corridor for Caspian Sea and Central Asian oil and gas. Georgia’s desire to join NATO and move closer to the West has angered Russia.
Since the war, Russia has recognized South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, as independent nations despite protests from the European Union, the United States and Georgia.
In the French city of Avignon, EU foreign ministers met to figure out how the bloc can mediate a long-term solution to the standoff. Kouchner insisted the EU’s aim also to improve relations with Russia, despite current disagreements.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was heading to Russia on Monday to meet with Medvedev and clarify parts of the EU peace deal, especially the terms for withdrawing troops. Information for this article was contributed from Poti, Georgia, by Steve Gutterman; from Moscow by Yuras Karmanau; from Avignon, France, by Constant Brand; and from Cernibbio, Italy, by Alessandra Rizzo and Dan Perry of The Associated Press.
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