"RUSSIA NEEDS NO CONTROLLABLE CRISES"
Madina Shavlokhova, Olga Pavlikova

WPS Agency
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 22, 2008 Monday
Russia

SERGEI LAVROV: RECOGNITION OF SOUTH OSSETIA AND ABKHAZIA IS NOT
A PRECEDENT; Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Senators to
discuss results of the crisis in the Caucasus and proclaim Russia’s
foreign policy as peaceful.

Addressing enlarged meeting of the Federation Council’s Committee
for International Affairs yesterday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said that recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was setting no
precedents for the Trans-Dniester and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts.

The minister reiterated his determination to continue promotion of
peaceful settlement of conflicts in the Commonwealth on the basis of
the international law. "I’m talking of the Trans-Dniester region and
Nagorno-Karabakh," he said. "Every conflict has its own distinctive
features and formats and mechanisms of international brokering,
but the South Ossetian crisis sets no precedents for them."

Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov told Gazeta that the
Russian Federation intended to promote reunification of the
Trans-Dniester region with Moldova and settlement of the conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh. "We observe certain progress in the processes
of settlement there," he said. "Moreover, there have been no acts
of genocide or outright aggressions there." Margelov even referred
to the latest opinion poll conducted by the All-Russian Public
Opinion Research Center that revealed a doubling of the number of
the respondents supporting recognition of Kosovo. Pollsters say that
only 15% respondents advocated recognition of Pristina in March and
31% in September when Russia officially recognized South Ossetia
and Abkhazia. Margelov pronounced Russian diplomacy’s stand on the
matter of Kosovo unchanged. "We are constantly criticized for being
illogical because we do recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia but
deny recognition to Kosovo," Margelov said. "Let us then consider
the West. Is the West being logical? Since it recognized Kosovo,
it should have recognized South Ossetia with Abkhazia too, as well
as the North Cyprus and the republic in the west Sahara."

In any event, Lavrov’s meeting with senators was focused on results
of the conflict in the Caucasus. The minister reminded those present
that recognition of their sovereignty had been the only guarantee
of security of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and actually of their
very survival in the face of Tbilisi’s chauvinistic policy. "I’m
talking of the policy going back into the days of Gamsakhurdia (Zviad
Gamsakhurdia – first president of post-Soviet Georgia – Gazeta) who
suggested deportation of all Ossetians into Russia," the minister said.

Speaking of how the foreign media covered the operation against
Georgia, Lavrov called it counter-productive. "General public in Russia
is perfectly aware of Western journalists’ biases and prejudices,"
he said. According to the minister, the way the foreign media covered
the conflict exposed the depth of anti-Russian trends the West was
using to promote its own objectives and interests in nearby countries
including Ukraine.

Lavrov was disturbed by the efforts of some Western countries and
Georgia to revise the agreements president of Russia and France made in
Moscow. "We expect that our partners in the European Union, the ones
who also signed Medvedev-Sarkozy principles and became guarantors of
security of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, will put an end to the travesty
of the truth and common sense within the framework of the OSCE."

Margelov would later say that the minister proclaimed Russia’s
foreign policy as thoroughly peaceful. "Lavrov made it plain that
Russia is not going to foment any controllable crises in order to
fish in troubled waters."