Russia recognises independence of rebel regions

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev today officially recognised the independence of the breakaway Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In a televised address Mr Medvedev said he had signed a decree on the decision.

Few other nations are likely to follow the move - but it is sure to further escalate tensions between Moscow and the West.

The declaration comes as Russian forces remain in Georgia. They are holding positions beyond the de-facto borders of the two separatist regions.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia have effectively ruled themselves following wars with Georgia in the 1990s.

Russia's military presence seems likely to further weaken Western ally Georgia.

"This is not an easy choice but this is the only chance to save people's lives," Mr Medvedev said a day after Russia's Kremlin-controlled parliament voted unanimously to support the diplomatic recognition.

Russian tanks and troops drove deep into Georgia in a five-day war earlier this month that Moscow saw as a justified response to a military threat in its backyard and the West viewed as a repeat of Soviet-style intervention in its vassal states.

Mr Medvedev said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had forced Russia's hand by launching an attack to seize control of South Ossetia by force.

"Saakashvili chose genocide to fulfil his political plans," Mr Medvedev said. "Georgia chose the least human way to achieve its goal - to absorb South Ossetia by eliminating a whole nation."

On the heels of Russia's first post-Soviet invasion of a foreign country, recognition was another stark demonstration of the Kremlin's determination to hold sway in lands where its power is jeopardised by Nato's expansion and growing Western influence.

After Russia's parliament backed the move yesterday the US State Department said recognition of the two areas would be "unacceptable" and President George Bush urged the Kremlin against it.