Europe Won’t Punish Russia Due To Energy Dependence; Russia Laughs, Calls NATO “A Mouse”
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BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO pulled its punches against Russia on Tuesday, suspending formal contacts as punishment for the Georgia invasion but bucking U.S. pressure for more severe penalties.
The Russian ambassador to NATO played down the impact of the emergency meeting of the Western alliance.
“The mountain gave birth to a mouse,” said Dmitry Rogozin.
Although the allies said they would not convene any more meetings of the NATO-Russia Council until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia, they bowed to concerns from Europe — which depends heavily on Russia for energy — and stopped short of adopting specific long-term steps to punish Moscow for its actions.
“There can be no business as usual with Russia under present circumstances,” alliance Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after the meeting of NATO foreign ministers here.
“We are not abandoning the NATO-Russia Council, but as long as Russian forces are occupying large parts of Georgia, I cannot see the NATO-Russia Council meeting,” he told reporters.
Russia, which has accused the United States of wanting to dismantle the council, asked for a meeting last week but has been rebuffed thus far.
De Hoop Scheffer said “the future will depend on concrete actions from the Russian side,” but he was forced to add that “no specific decisions on programs or projects (with Russia) have been taken.”
The Russians have agreed to a cease-fire deal that requires a troop pullback, but at the Pentagon on Tuesday evening officials said the latest assessment by U.S. intelligence was that the Russians had shown no sign of beginning a substantial withdrawal. Two officials, who agreed to discuss the intelligence assessment on condition of anonymity, said separately that Russian forces were holding their positions.
In a small victory for the United States, NATO foreign ministers did agree to show support for Georgia’s pro-Western government by creating a NATO-Georgia Commission to oversee the former Soviet republic’s bid to join the alliance and begin providing military training to its army.
And they united behind a demand for Russia to fully comply with a European-mediated cease-fire and to respect Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. They also kept the door open for Georgia’s eventual membership despite fierce Russian resistance.
However, there was no consensus for more robust expressions of backing for Georgia or displeasure with Moscow.
“There are different sensibilities on this; there are states who want this process to move faster,” Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said. “The alliance has to take united, firm position but without being aggressive.”
As limited as the NATO action was, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the alliance of “trying to make a victim of the aggressor, to absolve of guilt a criminal regime, to save a collapsed regime and is taking a course to rearm the current leaders of Georgia.”
The White House, meanwhile, pressed Russia to remove its troops from Georgia more quickly.
“It didn’t take them really three or four days to get into Georgia, and it really shouldn’t take them three or four days to get out,” Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is spending time at his ranch.
“It needs to happen faster; that’s what they’ve agreed to,” he said.
In Georgia, Russian soldiers took about 20 Georgians in military uniform prisoner at a Black Sea port, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and they also took American Humvees that were awaiting shipment back to the United States. A small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles left the strategic city of Gori in the first sign of a Russian pullback of troops.
Ahead of the NATO meeting in Brussels, U.S. officials had said they were looking for tangible ways to demonstrate support for Georgia and make Russia pay for what Washington calls a “brutal invasion” of a smaller neighbor and an attempt to subvert a democratically elected government.
Yet, they were forced to scale back their plans once they realized that some European allies — particularly those who depend on Russia for energy — were wary of isolating Moscow.
“The United States sought precisely what we got in this statement,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
She later flew to Poland, where she was to sign a missile defense treaty with the Poles over vehement objections from Russia.
Rice maintained the alliance had rallied firmly behind Georgia by agreeing to stick to a December timeline to reconsider the country’s NATO membership and by deciding to send specific technical assistance to assess damage and help reconstruct critical infrastructure like power networks, airports and hospitals.
She also said that NATO had made “very clear” that it would not allow Russia to re-create an Iron Curtain dividing eastern and western Europe anew after the end of the Cold War.
“This alliance … is not going to permit a new line to be drawn in Europe,” she said. “There will absolutely be no new line and NATO does not accept that there is a new line.”
Of immediate importance, the ministers said, is for Russia to honor the cease-fire that was brokered by France, the country that currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Despite repeated promises from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to pull his troops out of Georgia in accordance with the agreement, Moscow has yet to make significant withdrawals, bringing firm rebukes from NATO members.
“It is time for the Russian president to keep his word to withdraw Russian forces,” Rice said in comments echoed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who helped negotiate the deal.
“We are very disappointed because despite the promise to us, there is no withdrawal of troops,” Kouchner told reporters after Tuesday’s meeting. “When you sign up to an agreement, you have to respect it.”
European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels later Tuesday to consider how to react to Russia’s defiant stance.
Kouchner said French President Nicolas Sarkozy may call an European summit to review EU relations with Russia if Moscow does not respect the cease-fire.
“We don’t want to use this sort of pressure, but we also don’t want this document to remain a dead letter,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Russia had agreed to allow 20 more international military monitors in and around Georgia’s disputed region of South Ossetia, the flash point separatist region at the heart of the current conflict.
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Can we bomb them, now?
August 19th, 2008 at 6:30 pmBy their very existence,
bureaucrats can transform powerful nations into simpering impotent slaves.
Thanks a bunch NATO.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:32 pmToss NATO, the UN and the state dept all in the same category: Usless.
Note to the above dumbasses - China is watching.
btw What is that rifle the Russian in holding?
August 19th, 2008 at 6:33 pm““The United States sought precisely what we got in this statement,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.”
So we were trying to put lipstick on the pig of an ‘agreement’?
August 19th, 2008 at 6:35 pmGimme a fucking break Condi.
What a useless organization NATO has become. cant pull their own weight in Afghanistan and cant even come to the aid of smaller ‘weaker’ democratic nation like Georgia.
well the bully wins this round everybody.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:01 pmAs I expected.
How disgusting.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:07 pmIt looks like an AS VAL suppressed assault rifle.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:57 pmActually I was wrong RTLM that is not an AS VAL it’s a VSS Vintorez suppressed sniper rifle, sorry about that.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:02 pmpussies…
August 20th, 2008 at 12:32 am“…the allies bowed to concerns from Europe — which depends heavily on Russia for energy…”
That one line says it all. European countries dependent on oil from Russia will always bend over backwards to appease it.
When is Europe going to do more drilling and invent other forms of energy? I’m not really up on this issue as regards Europe, but is the world expecting only the U.S. to change its energy guzzling ways?
August 20th, 2008 at 2:58 amDon’t get confused, the REAL war is still with the MUSLIM TERRORISM, can’t see that a media starred president can replace it in our agendas
August 20th, 2008 at 3:10 amits kinda funny but Hamas leaders are close to putin, how is that not a state sponsored terrorism…its like chasing a proxy instead of getting the “master”… just a few thoughts for a mind
August 20th, 2008 at 6:24 amIf the USA packs up and goes home, Eastern Europe is gone.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:39 amMaybe all of Europe. And they still want Hussein to be elected?
They’re insane.
giorgi, here on this site they kept telling that was Iran the sponsor
August 20th, 2008 at 8:34 amwhos irans “daddy” , you tell me
August 20th, 2008 at 9:01 amand by the way, this site is not for just an informative fact finding discussion, as far as i understand this is for sharing opinions on ALREADY established threats and activities.. and if u didnt know iran was sponsoring terror groups prior to this websites appearance than its oyur problem…damn i hate smartasses
August 20th, 2008 at 9:16 amgood Giorgi your soon becoming me
August 20th, 2008 at 9:25 amwell yeah
August 20th, 2008 at 9:52 amexcept for the “smart” part
Not only is Russian arming HAMAS through Iran and Syria, it is the only country in the Quartet that recognizes the terrorist organization and invites Khaled Mashaal to meet in its capital with its head of state. Furthermore, when Russia isn’t busy indirectly arming the jihadists, they’re running interference for them in international political and economic circles.
By the way, guess who former German chancellor Gerhard Schroder got a job from after he left office? Vladimir Putin’s state-controlled oil giant, Gazprom:
Gerhard Schroeder’s Sellout
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/12/AR2005121201060_pf.html
For Schröder and Putin, Linkup No Coincidence
August 20th, 2008 at 10:07 amhttp://select.nytimes.com/iht/2006/01/03/international/IHT-03politicus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
except for the “smart” part
uh, didn’ you teach me to forget about the “smat” part ?
August 20th, 2008 at 10:26 amRussia has been planning this for years. Russia new that by controlling Europes energy needs. Europe could do nothing.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:40 pmEspecially since Europe is demilitarized. It would take years for Europe to become a force to fight Russia.
The NATO paralysis exemplifies the problem with large bureaucratic organizations … too many individual agendas and too difficult to arrive at consensus.
In the years since 1939 tell me have we not gone full circle with the UN vis-a-vis the League of Nations? Both were idealistic dreams that became impotent due to bureaucratic morass. Heve we not gone full circle with the Russians ( aka Soviets) taking the place of the Nazis and the jihadi nutcases giving us a preview of things to come a’la he Spanish Civil War? Of course Iran gets to play the part of Imperial Japan underestimating the power of the US because they are blinded by nationalistic fervor.
Sorry about the rant … but sometimes ya just gotta go it alone and do what’s right. See, that’s why I love GWB! It’s easy to do the right thing when you have a clearness of vision and a strong set of values. Obama would try to talk his way out of this with about as much success as a 98 pound yuppie trying to talk his new cellmate (Bubba) out of the ass-fucking that’s about to come down on him.
Just my opinion … I could be wrong.
August 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pmCondi brought up the term “Iron Curtain” in her press conference, interesting choice of words. Bosnian independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia. US selling guns to Georgia Russia’s enemy, Russia selling guns to Hamas, the US’ enemy. US signs agreement with Poland for Missile Defense. Russia tightens its grip on energy supplies to Poland and the rest of Europe. Lines are being drawn Condi. Let’s hope you people don’t miss the signs as you have time and again.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:39 amwhat a wonderful world, Im going in hibernation till 2012, might be only rats alive
August 21st, 2008 at 2:37 amwhy should the west has to be bending over..let the russians do that..they aren’t as strong for a “cold war”
August 21st, 2008 at 5:45 amWe have got to be independent from foreign oil or we will wind up like Europe bowing to the will of Mother Russia.
August 21st, 2008 at 7:04 am