WASHINGTON - The United States has urged Russia not to recognize the two rebel
regions of Georgia - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - as independent states.
President George W Bush has reportedly asked Vice President Dick Cheney to go
to Georgia in early September to help shore up the small US ally, the White
House said. Cheney will also visit Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Italy on the trip.
"To us that would be unacceptable," State Department spokesman Robert Wood
said. "Russia needs to respect the territorial independence and sovereignty of
Georgia." Russia was "well aware" of the US position on the separatist regions,
he said, adding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken to
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "at least once" in the last 10 days.
The US comments follow lawmakers in the Duma, Russia's Lower House of
parliament, unanimously adopted a resolution calling on President Dmitry
Medvedev to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Just
hours earlier, the same resolution sailed through the Upper House, the
Federation Council.
Until now, the Kremlin has supported Georgia's two separatist regions
financially and politically, but has stopped short of officially recognizing
their sovereignty.
Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov said it is now time for Russia to
take that step. "The peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have every right to
gain independence," Mironov said. "And one of the main legal principles for
recognizing independence is the fundamental principle of international law -
the right of people to self-determination."
The vote follows a Georgian offensive to retake South Ossetia on August 7,
which triggered a massive counterattack from Russia. The conflict has killed
hundreds of people and driven thousands more from their homes.
The Duma also approved a second resolution calling on parliaments worldwide to
back independence for Georgia's breakaway provinces.
The document states that Abkhazia and South Ossetia deserve international
recognition no less than Kosovo, the predominantly ethnic-Albanian province
that declared independence from Serbia in February with the backing of the
West.
South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity reiterated this stance at the Federation
Council session, saying: "We have more political-legal grounds than Kosovo does
to have our independence recognized. When I say 'we', I mean both South Ossetia
and Abkhazia."
Russian officials have on many occasions hinted that the Western recognition of
Kosovo has created a precedent paving the way for the formal recognition of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
But Andrei Zagorsky, a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International
Relations, tells RFE/RL's Russian Service this is not a valid argument. "The
precedent they most like to cite is Kosovo, although international law is not
based on precedents," Zagorsky says.
"There are many examples in history of both successful resolutions of secession
crisis, when an internal solution was found within the state, and situations
when this didn't work out. There exists no strict regulation in international
law," he adds. "Political factors - recognition and the reaction of countries
that don't accept this recognition - play a determining role."
Also in attendance, Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh said, "Neither Abkhazia - and
I will allow myself to speak for South Ossetia too - nor South Ossetia will
ever agree to live in one state with Georgia, and we ask you to cross this
barrier which has been so hard to cross for many years and to recognize our
republics as independent states."
Neither resolution, however, is legally binding, and Medvedev will have the
last word on the matter.
But political analysts agree that the resolutions, even if left unanswered,
give the Kremlin leader a valuable bargaining chip as he negotiates the status
of Russian forces in Georgia.
Western countries, led by the United States, Georgia's main ally, have
criticized Russia for failing to pull back its troops from central and western
Georgia.
The United States delivered 55 tons of aid to Georgia on August 24, in a
gesture of support for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who says the
conflict with Russia has caused around US$2 billion in damage to his country.
France, which brokered a ceasefire in the conflict as EU president, has called
a meeting of European leaders on September 1 to discuss the conflict and the
bloc's future relations with Russia.
Moscow insists that its remaining forces near the Black Sea port of Poti and in
areas outside the boundaries of the breakaway regions are peacekeepers needed
to avert further violence.
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