Georgia: Moscow accuses west of double standards·
Nato has no moral right to lecture us, says Kremlin
· EU backs off from threat of sanctions over Georgia

Luke Harding in Moscow

The Guardian,
Saturday August 30 2008

Russia bitterly accused the west of bias and double standards
yesterday, following international criticism of its actions in Georgia,
and amid signs that the European Union is backing away from sanctions
against Moscow.

Russia’s foreign ministry said it rejected criticism from the G7 group
of industrialised countries. They condemned its invasion of Georgia,
and its recognition on Tuesday of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as
independent.

"This step is biased and aimed at justifying the aggressive actions of
Georgia," the ministry said, adding that the G7 – Britain, France,
Germany, the US, Italy, Japan and Canada – had made "baseless
assertions about Russia undermining Georgia’s territorial integrity".

Russia foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko criticised Nato for
"putting pressure" on Russia and said there could be "irreversible
consequences" for "stability" in Europe. Nato had no "moral right" to
lecture Russia, he said.

The Kremlin’s defiant tone comes ahead of a special EU summit in
Brussels on Monday, called by France, to discuss the EU’s future ties
with Russia. On Thursday, France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner,
intimated that sanctions would be discussed. Yesterday, the EU appeared

to be retreating from this position.

Moscow has made clear it will respond to any punitive measures from
Brussels, which could include the suspension of a new EU-Russia
partnership agreement. "The time to pass sanctions has certainly not
come," said a diplomat from France, which holds the EU presidency.

Analysts in Moscow said last night that Russia’s leadership was
relatively unconcerned about the threat of EU sanctions. "I don’t think
the contemporary west has any means to punish a state that is not quite
a rogue state," Yulia Latynina, a commentator with the independent Echo
of Moscow radio station told the Guardian. She added: "The Kremlin
didn’t take Tbilisi and didn’t shoot [Mikheil] Saakashvili. Expelling
Russia from the G8 or the World Trade Organisation isn’t important."

Strategically, she said, prime minister Vladimir Putin has satisfied
his personal feeling towards Mr Saakashvili. "The war was brilliant in
its design."

Other analysts said they did not expect Russia to reverse its
recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, despite the prospect of the
states’ international isolation. So far, only Belarus had said it will
join Russia in recognising the two states.

"I think they are watching very closely to see what will happen at the
EU summit," said Grigorii V Golosov, professor at the faculty of
political sciences at the European University of St Petersburg. "But I
think the Kremlin calculation is th
at the EU won’t react seriously."

Putin’s interview with CNN on Thursday – in which he blamed the war in
Georgia on a Washington plot to propel John McCain into the White House
– was a deliberate tactic, Golosov said. Putin’s aim was to promote
divisions between the EU and Washington.

Yesterday, Igor Sechin, the deputy prime minister, dismissed a report
in the Daily Telegraph that Moscow was preparing to cut oil deliveries
to western Europe, calling the claim "a gross provocation".