Russia ratifies rebel Georgia enclaves

RUSSIA formally recognised the breakaway territories at the heart of its war with Georgia yesterday, heightening tensions with the west as the United States dispatched a military ship bearing aid to a port city still patrolled by Russian troops.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia forced Russia’s hand by launching an attack targeting South Ossetia on August 7 in an apparent bid to seize control of the breakaway region.

“This is not an easy choice but this is the only chance to save people’s lives,” Medvedev said in a televised address, a day after Russia’s parliament voted unanimously to support the diplomatic recognition.

The US was taken by surprise by the speed of the Russian response on recognition and escalated it by having Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threaten a UN Security Council veto should Russia ask for international recognition of its move.

“Abkhazia and South Ossetia are a part of the internationally recognised borders of Georgia and it’s going to remain so,” Rice said.

Britain, Germany and France also criticised the decision. Medvedev later said Russia did not seek or fear a new cold war and that it was up to the west to avoid it.

“We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new cold war,” said Medvedev.

“But we don’t want it and in this situation everything depends on the position of our partners.”

“If they want to preserve good relations with Russia in the west, they will understand the reason behind our decision,” he added.

Russian forces have staked out positions beyond the de facto borders of the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The two territories have effectively ruled themselves following wars in the 1990s.

Angering Russia, the United States sent the missile destroyer USS McFaul to the southern Georgian port of Batumi, well away from the conflict zone, to deliver 34 tons of humanitarian aid on Sunday.

A top Russian general yesterday said that using warships to deliver aid was “devilish”.

“The heightened activity of Nato ships in the Black Sea perplexes us,” Col Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn said in Moscow.

The US says its ships are carrying humanitarian aid but suspicion persists in Russia that they are delivering military material clandestinely.

At least several hundred Russian troops are estimated to still be manning checkpoints that Russia calls “security zones.”

Two of the checkpoints are near the edge of the Black Sea port of Poti — one by a bridge that provides the only access to Poti. The Russian military is also claiming the right to patrol in the city.