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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia does not want new Iron Curtain: Medvedev
2008-09-20
President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday he did not want disputes with the West to push Russia behind a new Iron Curtain, and blamed NATO for provoking last month's conflict in Georgia.

"We are in effect being pushed down a path that is founded not on fully-fledged, civilised partnership with other countries, but on autonomous development, behind thick walls, behind an Iron Curtain," Medvedev said in an address to a gathering of civil society groups. "That is not our path. For us there is no sense going back to the past. We have made our choice," he said.

Protecting Europe: He also said the NATO alliance's role in the Georgia conflict showed it was unable to provide security in Europe, creating a need for a new security mechanism. "That is understood even by those who in private conversations with me say ... 'NATO will take care of everything'. What did NATO secure, what did NATO ensure? NATO only provoked the conflict, and not more than that."

No war: Meanwhile, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko said on Friday there was no possibility of a war with the United States and the European Union should guarantee security in Georgia. "Regarding the possibility of war between the United States and Russia, this possibility is ruled out," Yakovenko told reporters in Moscow. "We hope that the European Union will guarantee security" in Georgia.

Yakovenko also criticised the United States for acting in "bad faith" by not granting visas to representatives of the disputed Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - the scenes of a military conflict last month. "The US has been blocking the issuing of visas. We consider this bad faith in carrying out its obligations as a government that undertakes to organise the United Nations. We think visas... must be given," Yakovenko said.

Russia recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia after the war in Georgia. No other country except Nicaragua recognises the territories, which broke away from the rest of Georgia with Russian support in the 1990s. The Russian minister also said that the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), the main guarantor of a ceasefire in Abkhazia, should have its name and mandate changed or move out of the disputed territory.

"It's logical to move it to the territory of Georgia, since the main threat to stability comes from there," Yakovenko said, referring to UNOMIG which has headquarters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi and separatist Abkhazia.
Posted by:Fred

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