Russia warned the West yesterday against supporting Georgia’s leadership and called for an arms embargo against the former Soviet republic until a different government is in place.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks are likely to anger the US and Europe and enrage Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. He made it clear Moscow wants Saakashvili out of power in Georgia.
“If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions,” he said.
PHOTO: EPA
‘FOR A START’
“For a start it would be right to impose an embargo on weapons to this regime,” he said in an address at Russia’s top foreign policy graduate school.
Lavrov spoke as the EU prepared for a summit yesterday to discuss the Georgia crisis and relations with Russia.
“Today’s EU summit should clear up a great deal. We hope the choice they make will be based on Europe’s fundamental interests,” he said.
He said Russia’s relations with NATO were facing a “moment of truth.”
GEORGIAN RALLIES
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people were expected to rally across Georgia yesterday to protest Russia’s actions.
Demonstrators were to form a human chain through Tbilisi and similar actions were planned in major European cities including Brussels, London and Vienna.
The human chain would be formed at 3pm in Tbilisi and in other major cities in Georgia, government spokeswoman Nino Imedashvili said in a statement.
In a show of national unity, the chain has been organized by the government, political parties, Georgian NGOs and state and private Georgian television.
“We are expecting tens of thousands of people, I think there will be over 30,000 just in Tbilisi,” lawmaker Papuna Davitaia of the ruling United National Movement said.
He said the rally would “show the world and Europe our unity.”
In related developments, Australia is reconsidering a pact to sell uranium to Russia following its military push into Georgia, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith warned yesterday.
He spoke as the head of a parliamentary committee examining the deal that would allow sales of uranium for use in Russia’s civil nuclear power industry, expanding on the terms of a 1990 agreement, raised fears the that yellowcake could be diverted for nuclear weapons use.
AUSTRALIAN CONCERNS
Smith told parliament that Australia would take into account Russia’s actions in Georgia and the state of Moscow’s ties with Canberra when deciding whether to ratify the pact signed by the two countries last year.
“When considering ratification, the government will take into account not just the merits of the agreement but recent and ongoing events in Georgia and the state of Australia’s bilateral relationship with the Russian Federation,” Smith said.
Smith said he made Australia’s views clear to Russia’s ambassador when he summoned the envoy last week to call on Moscow to pull its troops in Georgia back to the positions they held before the conflict began on Aug. 8.
He also criticized Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
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