The announcement by President Dimitry Medvedev Tuesday that Russia
is to recognize the independence of the two Georgian breakaway
regions of South Ossetia and Georgia drew near-universal condemnation
from world leaders.
The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and NATO
rejected Medvedev's decision, announced a day after both houses of
the Russian parliament unanimously backed extending recognition to
the two territories, which have long enjoyed backing from their
powerful neighbour.
Dissenting voices came from the Belarus government and from the
pro-Russian faction in Ukraine.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman, Michele Montas,
said Ban believed the move 'may have wider implications for security
and stability in the Caucasus.'
'The secretary general regrets that ongoing efforts to find a
common solution within the security council may be complicated,' she
said.
Ban urged the implementation of France's six-point peace plan and
stressed the need to protect civilians.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice termed the decision
'regrettable.'
And she warned, while on a visit to the West Bank, that the two
regions were 'part of the internationally recognized borders of
Georgia, and it's going to remain so.'
'It puts Russia in opposition to a number of security council
resolutions to which it is a party,' Rice said.
The French presidency of the EU 'firmly condemned' the Russian
move as 'contrary to the principles of Georgia's independence,
sovereignty and territorial integrity.'
The EU remained committed to a 'political solution to the
conflict,' it said.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said: 'I reject the
decision of the Russian government to extend recognition to the South
Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia.
'This is in direct violation of numerous UN security council
resolutions regarding Georgia's territorial integrity - resolutions
that Russia itself has endorsed,' he said.
Russia simultaneously cut a range of military and diplomatic
contacts with the Western military alliance.
The Foreign Ministry in London said the British government
'categorically rejects' the Russian decision.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on a visit to the Estonian
capital of Tallinn, said Medvedev's decision was 'absolutely not
acceptable.'
And Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini described the Russian
recognition as 'unilateral' and outside the framework of
'international legality.'
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, current chairman of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said the
decision 'violates fundamental OSCE principles.'
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt slammed the move as 'playing
with fire in the Balkans,' adding that Russia had embarked on a
course of confrontation with Europe.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, all former
republics of the Soviet Union that have since joined NATO and the EU,
also slammed Medvedev's announcement.
Poland, a communist ally of the Soviet Union until the collapse of
communism and now a member of both NATO and the EU, also condemned
the decision.
The Polish Foreign Ministry urged Russia to adhere to an agreement
worked out by Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to end
hostilities in Georgia earlier this month.
Bulgaria and Romania, both within the communist orbit until the
Soviet Union collapsed, also condemned the move.
But members of parliament in Belarus, a neighbour and ally of
Russia, supported the decision.
'I think it was an absolutely correct decision,' said Sergei
Kostian, a member of the parliament international affairs committee.
'All responsible people should support Russia, so as to put an end
to the unilateral influence in the world of the US and the EU,'
Kostian said.
And in Ukraine, another former Soviet Union republic, political
leaders were divided.
Former prime minister Viktor Yanukovich, the head of the
opposition Regions party and a Moscow ally, said: 'Ukraine should
respect the will of the peoples of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.'
He compared the status of the two regions to that of Kosovo and
its separation from Serbia. Ukraine should recognise the independence
of both regions, Yanukovich said.
But Arseny Yatseniok, a close ally of Ukrainian President Viktor
Yushchenko, criticized the Kremlin, saying: 'Only the United Nations
can rule on this question (of the status of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia.'
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