US President George W. Bush demanded Russian troops leave Georgia as he dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the country in a show of support for his pro-West ally.
Rice, who departed on her trip yesterday, will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy — who personally brokered the six-point ceasefire agreement — then travel to Tbilisi to meet with pro-West Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
“The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia, insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected,” Bush said in a brief White House statement on Wednesday.
PHOTO: AP
Standing with Rice and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates at his side in the White House Rose Garden, he scolded Moscow for its attacks on Georgia and warned it had put Russia’s post-Cold War embrace by the West “at risk.”
“To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe, and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis,” he demanded.
Bush said he had received reports of Russian actions “inconsistent” with Moscow’s statements that it had halted military operations and agreed to the French-brokered provisional ceasefire in the Russian-Georgian conflict.
“We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia, and we expect all Russian forces that entered Georgia in recent days to withdraw from that country,” he said.
Rice said Russia faced international isolation if it refused to respect the truce.
Reported ceasefire violations would “only serve to deepen the isolation into which Russia is moving” and “the very strong, growing sense that Russia is not behaving like the kind of international partner that it has said that it wants to be,” Rice told reporters in Washington.
Bush said he had already spoken to Sarkozy and Saakashvili amid the peace push by France, which holds the rotating EU presidency.
As an international aid operation swung into place, a US C-17 military aircraft landed in Tbilisi bearing medical supplies, shelter, bedding and cots, and Bush promised more would be on the way.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, said it would be reviewing the needs of the Georgian military, battered in more than four days of all-out fighting with Russian forces over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
The Bush administration is reeling from the near collapse of its closest friend among the former Soviet republics, a strategic Black Sea nation that is an emerging pathway for undeveloped energy reserves and that has worn its zeal for America and the West as a badge of honor.
As the US mustered humanitarian aid for Georgia, President George W. Bush demanded that Russia end all military activity inside its neighbor and withdraw all troops sent in recent days onto Georgian territory.
Bush announced that US military assets and personnel would be deploying into the conflict zone. Though they are only going on a humanitarian mission, he made a point of noting that “we will use US aircraft, as well as naval forces” to distribute supplies. He warned Russia not to impede relief efforts in any way.
All this appeared designed to answer criticism that Bush has not done enough to stand by his 2005 pledge, made from the center of Tbilisi before tens of thousands of citizens, to “stand with” the people of Georgia.
But the comments by Bush, who postponed his two-week vacation plans to track the crisis, drew an angry response from Moscow.
“The Georgian leadership is a special project for the United States,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, quoted by Interfax news agency.
“At some time it [becomes] necessary to choose between supporting this virtual project and real partnership on questions that ... require collective action,” he said.
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