Brown urges ‘root-and-branch review’ of Russia’s relations

RUSSIA moved to ease tensions with the west ahead of an EU emergency summit on the Georgia conflict, as Britain pushed yesterday for a “root-and-branch” review of the bloc’s relations with Moscow.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev urged European governments to send more observers to Georgia to monitor a ceasefire between Russian and Georgian forces, opening the door to cooperation with the EU to resolve the conflict.

But British prime minister Gordon Brown warned that Russia’s military surge into Georgia and recognition of two Georgian rebel regions left EU leaders with little choice but to change the course of relations with Moscow.

“In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review, root and branch, our relationship with Russia,” he wrote in a commentary published yesterday in London’s Observer newspaper.

The prime minister said he had warned Medvedev in a telephone call on Saturday “to expect a determined European response” to the situation in Georgia at the summit in Brussels today.

While the French EU presidency has said sanctions are not an option, leaders are debating a response that could include measures to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas.

“No nation can be allowed to exert an energy stranglehold over Europe,” Brown said.

The EU must “more rapidly build relationships with other producers of oil and gas”, such as sourcing more energy from the Caspian Sea, he argued.

Medvedev reiterated on Saturday that Russia was “in full compliance with the six principles” of the French- brokered ceasefire deal, despite calls from the West for further withdrawals.

A Kremlin statement called for “the dispatch of additional OSCE observers to the security zone and setting up an impartial monitoring of the acts of the Georgian government”.

The 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe decided this month to send up to 100 observers to Georgia, and some 20 observers are currently on the ground.

Bolstering OSCE monitoring in the security zone near South Ossetia and Abkhazia could help persuade Russia to leave positions it is still holding in western Georgia and address its claims that Georgia is rearming and could stage another attack under the orders of “revanchist” President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged EU leaders to show “common sense” and ignore calls for sanctions, while acknowledging Russia was nervous about what is in store.

“If I were to say that we don’t care, that we were indifferent, I would be lying,” Putin said in an interview with Germany’s ARD TV.

The powerful former Kremlin leader offered assurances, saying Russian troops “of course will leave these positions where we are now... We will not remain there forever” and declaring that Russia recognises Ukraine’s borders.

US vice president Dick Cheney is due to visit Tbilisi tomorrow in the latest show of support for the former Soviet republic.

Georgia on Saturday also imposed visa restrictions on Russian citizens, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying it was a tit-for-tat measure. The new visa regime will take effect on September 8.