Allies consider ways of punishing Russia

SCRABBLING to find ways to punish Russia for its invasion of pro-Western Georgia, the US and its allies are considering expelling Moscow from an exclusive club of wealthy nations and canceling an upcoming joint NATO-Russia military exercise, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

But with scant leverage in the face of an emboldened Moscow, Washington and its friends have been forced to face the uncomfortable reality that their options are limited to mainly symbolic measures, such as boycotting Russian-hosted meetings and events, that may have little or no long-term impact on Russia’s behaviour, the officials said.

With the situation on the ground still unclear US officials were focused primarily on confirming a cease-fire and attending to Georgia’s urgent humanitarian needs following five days of fierce fighting, including Russian attacks on civilian targets.

“It is very important now that all parties cease fire,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

At the same time, however, President Bush and his top aides were engaged in frantic consultations with European and other nations over how best to demonstrate their fierce condemnations of the Russian operation that began in Georgia’s separatist region of South Ossetia, expanded to another disputed area, Abkhazia, and ended up on purely Georgian soil.

“The idea is to show the Russians that it is no longer business as usual,” said one senior official familiar with the consultations among world leaders that were going on primarily by phone and in person at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where alliance diplomats met and then with representatives of Georgia.

For now, the Bush administration decided to boycott a third meeting at NATO on Tuesday at which the alliance’s governing board was preparing for a meeting with a Russian delegation that was called at Moscow’s request, officials said.