Russia Faces Heat At U.N. For Georgia

U.N. Security Council Decries Russian Recognition Of Breakaway Georgian Provinces

(CBS/ AP)  Georgia and its backers in the U.N. Security Council on Thursday decried Russia's recognition of the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia responded by accusing its critics of bias and hypocrisy in an emergency meeting that turned bitter and personal.

The U.S., Britain and Georgia accused Russia of attempting to redraw internationally recognized borders through military force by moving troops into Georgia and then recognizing Georgia's separatist regions on Tuesday.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the charges were undercut by the international recognition of Kosovo's independence from Serbia this year by Washington and many European countries, and by their own use of force against opponents, in particular by the U.S. in Iraq.

"Weapons of mass destruction: Have you found them in Iraq yet or are you still looking for them?" Churkin asked U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff in remarks that also touched on centuries of Caucasus and Soviet history.

Wolff responded: "I'm not a psychologist, and I don't know what brought on the free association that we heard from ambassador Churkin."

Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested in a broadcast interview Thursday that the United States pushed Georgia toward war and said he suspects a connection to the American presidential campaign, the network said.

Russian news agencies said Putin told CNN that the U.S. seemingly encouraged Georgia's leadership to use force to resolve its dispute with separatist South Ossetia.

China, a frequent ally of Russia in the council, did not address the U.N. meeting, which consisted almost entirely of criticism of Russia. China earlier in the day issued a statement along with several Central Asian nations denouncing the use of force and calling for the respect of every country's territorial integrity, a blow to Russia's search for international backing.

Vietnam and Libya also remained silent, highlighting Russia's isolation in the council.

The Georgian ambassador to the U.N., Irakli Alasania, described Russia as being "in breach of fundamental norms and principles of international law and sovereignty" and said Moscow's unilateral recognition of the breakaway regions would have repercussions for separatist movements throughout the Caucasus.

"Russian is moving forward, altering the post-(Soviet) 1991 borders with unpredictable results," he said. "There is no place in today's world for attempts to redraw boundaries of our international order ... Unless confronted by the international community, Russian policies will eventually force another conflict elsewhere."

France strongly condemned the Russian recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Italy said the decision made the alarming conflict in Georgia even more dangerous.

British Ambassador John Sawers said Russia was making "a unilateral attempt to redraw the borders of a neighboring country through the use of force."

At earlier, closed consultations, council members rebuffed Russia's attempts to involve South Ossetian and Abkhazian representatives in the discussions, although Churkin told reporters that he was optimistic that Moscow's efforts will succeed.

[gobluesstl]

It looks like, what we have here , is a good ole Mexican standoff. This looks like a no win situation, for all parties involved. As an American soldier...I am not liking this at all.....I guess I can gain some cumfort. There''s an Old Soldier reading this with a lump in his gut too......God help us all.

[eggy1620]

The current administration is so sure that Obama will win that they are fanning these flames just so they can hand him a giant flaming bag of poo.

[underdogus87]

"Russia Faces Heat At U.N. For Georgia"..and Europe will face a cold winter,he,he

[underdogus87]

If EU introduces sanctions against Russia, Europe will have severe problems with fuel

[gce65]

Unlikely the Russians will face any sanctions or much else from the UN.

We get such a one-sided story of events here in the west.

The US has been trying to expand NATO control into central Asia for almost two decades. Now it''s trying to establish missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic and we wonder why Moscow objects?

This from a story in the Aug 30 Asia Times online: (link to story follows the quote)

Attention now shifts to the meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which is scheduled to take place in Moscow on September 5. The CSTO''s stance on the crisis in the Caucasus will be closely watched.

It appears that Moscow and Kazakhstan are closely cooperating in setting the agenda of CSTO, whose members are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The big question is how the CSTO gears up to meet NATO''s expansion plans. The emergent geopolitical reality is that with Russia''s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow has virtually checkmated the US strategy in the Black Sea region, defeating its plan to make the Black Sea an exclusive "NATO lake". In turn, NATO''s expansion plans in the Caucasus have suffered a setback.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH30Ag02.html

[gce65]

This is also why Cheney and his cronies are suddenly heading off to Georgia and Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan: the Russians are beating them at their little geopolitical chess game.

[samsel3]

The truth is, this is all about control of oil & gas pipelines. The BTC oil pipeline in South Ossetia & the Nabucco natural gas pipeline in NW Georgia supply markets in the European Union. In November 2003 the World Bank funded the BTC pipeline to circumvent Russian pipelines supplying europe.

Shareholders in the BTC pipeline are: British Petroleum, AzBTC, Chevron, Statoil, TPAO, ENI, Total, Itochu, INPEX, ConocoPhillips & Amerada Hess.
Russia is the second largest supplier of oil & gas on the planet.

After loosing Iraqi oil to Operation Iraqi Freedom, they negotiated supplies with Iran. The Russians were not happy with Cheneys BTC pipeline or the Caspian Sea Pipelines project going through Afghanistan. This threatens their economy based on oil & gas.

Again it''s the Bush administrations lust for money in World markets for their BIG OIL buddies

[timfitz42]

samsel3:
The US and the Russians have clandestine history going back 60 years ... unless you''re KGB or CIA I seriously doubt any of us know what "the truth" is. Every public statement the US and Russia release has gobs of intelligence behind it that we (the public) will never know ... and frankly, I''m glad I don''t.

[Thomas1016]

Don''t be fools.....Russia has been handing out Russian passports to the South Osettians for a couple years. While South Ossetians may be of ethnic Russian origen mainly They were still Georgian Citizens.

What do you think would happen if ethnic Ukranians who live near the Ukraine and are Russian citizens were suddenly to start recieving Ukrainian passports. Then start to demand their own independence from Russia.

I do agree though that Europe is limited in what it can do about it. I suggest Europe start a crash program in Solar and wind power to help end it''s dependence on Russian gas.