EU-RUSSIA ‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’ IMPOSSIBLE, LITHUANIA SAYS
Andrew Rettman

EUobserver.com
Aug 19 2008
Belgium

The TV Tower memorial in Vilnius where Soviet forces killed 13
civilians in a 1991 uprising – Lithuanian memories are raw (Photo:
wikipedia)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The EU should consider diplomatic sanctions
against Russia and speed up Georgia and Ukraine’s EU and NATO
integration to show Moscow that "muscle-flexing" does not work,
Lithuanian foreign minister, Petras Vaitiekunas, said in an interview
with EUobserver.

"We cannot and will not pretend that the EU will continue doing
‘business as usual’ with Moscow. This aggression has damaged the
EU-Russian partnership," the minister said on Tuesday (19 August), as
Russian tanks remained parked 45 kilometres from the Georgian capital,
Tbilisi, despite a Franco-Russian agreement for troops to pull out.

Print Comment article The Russian army launched a massive ground,
air and naval assault on Georgia on 7 August after Georgia fought back
against Russian-backed rebels in its breakaway South Ossetia region.

Germany, France and Italy have refused to strongly condemn Russian
actions so far, with Germany warning against isolating Russia via rash
diplomatic moves. But former communist EU states such as Lithuania
have lined up on Georgia’s side.

Mr Vaitiekunas said there will be a "substantial discussion" of
potential EU sanctions at an EU foreign ministers meeting on 5
September and predicted the EU will find common ground despite its
internal east-west divide.

"The EU should evaluate whether it is possible to continue in an
unaltered way the post-PCA talks [negotiations on a new EU-Russia
treaty], visa dialogue or other cooperation activities," he explained.

"We have seen some disagreements between EU member states on many
occasions, including the Georgia issue. Still, it does not create a
deep rift."

In the short-term, he urged the EU to take part in an "international
monitoring and peacekeeping force" to be deployed in a "clearly
specified time and territories," and to push for the "return of
refugees and displaced populations, alongside humanitarian action."

The UN estimates the recent conflict has created 150,000 new refugees,
amid reports that South Ossetian paramilitaries have burned ethnic
Georgian villages in South Ossetia to stop Georgian people from
coming back.

A previous war in the 1990s saw some 200,000 ethnic Georgians flee
from another Russian-backed separatist province, Abkhazia, with Russia
last week indicating it will help the separatists keep Georgians out
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia for good.

Frozen conflicts

In the longer-term, the Lithuanian foreign minister – who was in
Tbilisi for the duration of the recent five-day war – said the EU
must speed-up Georgia’s integration with the EU and NATO to show
Russia it cannot sabotage pro-western governments in its near-abroad
by military means.

He also urged greater EU engagement in Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan,
to reduce the risk of South Ossetia-type scenarios in other disputed
regions: Russian-backed separatist movements also exist in Ukraine’s
Crimea peninsula, Moldova’s Transdniestria province and Azerbaijan’s
breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"NATO refusing to grant a MAP [Membership Action Plan] for Georgia and
Ukraine at the Bucharest summit made a principle mistake. We can say
that it partly led to the situation that we have in Georgia today,"
Mr Vaitiekunas said, after France and Germany blocked the MAP move
at a NATO meeting in Romania in April.

"By giving a MAP to Georgia and to Ukraine we [would] clearly show
to Russia how unhelpful it is to even try flexing its muscles," he
added. "The [EU] visa facilitation issue for Georgia will have to
be raised further, as well as a preparation of a comprehensive Free
Trade Agreement."

"The EU and NATO should be much more involved in the resolution of
frozen conflicts, especially in Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria,
in order to reach peaceful solutions."