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Russia is a country ‘to be reckoned with’: Medvedev

Donated clothes are seen under a tree at a UN refugee camp in Gori, Georgia, on Saturday. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday that the world had changed when Russia went to war with Georgia on Aug. 8. PHOTO: AFP

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared that “Russia is a nation to be reckoned with” following its war with Georgia, again putting the West on notice that Moscow is prepared to use it military and economic might.

With a US Navy ship unloading aid off Georgia’s Black Sea coast within shooting distance of Russian troops, Medvedev’s comments on Saturday were another reminder that the Kremlin views last month’s war as the start of a new era in Russian assertiveness.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said “the truth is on our side,” and likened the situation in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia with Srebrenica — the Bosnian town that was the site of Europe’s worst mass carnage since World War II.

In France, the EU’s 27 foreign ministers were reluctant to provoke Moscow, with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner saying the EU did not plan to impose sanctions against Russia.

“Russia must remain a partner. It’s our neighbor, it’s a large country and there is no question to go back to a Cold War situation, that would be a big mistake,” he said.

In the weeks since Russian forces routed the Georgian army and seized South Ossetia, Russian officials have used bellicose language toward the West. Putin has suggested the US was to blame for the war for helping the Georgian military rebuild.

At a meeting on Saturday of the State Council, Medvedev said the world had changed since the beginning of fighting in Georgia last month.

“We have reached a moment of truth. It became a different world after Aug. 8,” he said.

“Russia will never allow anyone to infringe upon the lives and dignity of its citizens. Russia is a nation to be reckoned with from now on,” he said.

VENEZUELA

Meanwhile, in a military first certain to raise eyebrows in the US, Russia will carry out joint naval maneuvers in the Americas with Venezuela, the Venezuelan navy said on Saturday.

Four Russian ships with almost 1,000 sailors aboard will carry out joint maneuvers in Venezuelan territorial waters in November, the navy said in a statement.

“This is of great importance because it is the first time it is being done” in the Americas, Venezuela’s navy joint chiefs strategic intelligence director, Rear Admiral Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas, said.

The joint maneuvers will also include Venezuela’s air force and submarines.
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