RUSSIA RECOGNIZES INDEPENDENCE OF GEORGIA’S REBEL REGIONS

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Aug 26 2008
Germany

Sochi, Russia – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev formally recognized
Georgia’s rebel regions as independent on Tuesday, defying Western
criticism as its troops remained in the former Soviet state.

‘In the current crisis it became necessary to make a decision. … I
have signed decrees on the recognition by the Russian Federation of
the independence of South Ossetia and of Abkhazia,’ Medvedev said in
a nationally televised statement Tuesday.

The United States slammed the resolution while the European Union
reaffirmed support for Georgia’s territorial integrity just minutes
before Medvedev’s announcement.

‘It is not an easy choice, but it is the only way to protect the
lives of civilians,’ the president said after meeting with Russia’s
security chiefs.

The Kremlin convened the security council at the president’s Black Sea
residence in Sochi on Tuesday to review a plea by Russia’s parliament
for recognition of the two Georgian breakaway regions.

Vladimir Putin – Russia’s powerful premier and Medvedev’s predecessor
as president – was also in attendance.

Medvedev stressed that Russia has long held back from recognizing
Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s pleas for independence, but that Georgia’s
attack on the latter had forced its hand.

‘On the night of August 8, Tbilisi had a choice: (Georgian President
Mikheil) Saakashvili opted for genocide. … With this choice
Saakashvili wiped out all hope of a peaceful coexistence of South
Ossetia and Abkhazia under one government,’ Medvedev said in the
statement.

Russia and Georgia fought a brief but bloody war over South Ossetia
with Russia’s army moving deep into Georgia last week after repelling
an offensive by Georgian troops to re-take its separatist region.

Few other governments are likely to recognize the two regions, that
have held de facto independence since winning a war of succession
from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

With Russian troops still deep in Georgia, Russia’s move to recognize
the republics is sure to deepen a rift in ties with the West already
at their worst since the Cold War.

The United States rebuked Russia’s parliament over the resolution on
Monday, saying it was ‘deeply concerned.’

US President George W Bush warned that Moscow’s recognition of
the provinces would violate its commitments and the United Nations
resolutions governing the diplomatic effort to resolve the frozen
conflicts.

Russian lawmakers Monday cited Kosovo’s recent break from Serbia as a
legal precedent for South Ossetia’s moral right to self- determination.

Ahead of the announcement, Medvedev sought to reassure the Molodovan
and Azeri presidents – who have similar secession worries to Georgia
– over the respective breakaway regions of Nagorno Karabakh and
Transnistria.