We're no worse than Kosovo say ex-Soviet separatists

SUKHUMI, Georgia (Reuters) - Residents of one disputed sliver of land in the former Soviet Union were asking on Monday: if Kosovo can be recognized as an independent state, why can't we?

Georgia's rebel region of Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast is one of four ex-Soviet breakaway regions which declared their independence in the 1990s and fought separatist wars but have not been recognized as states.

In Sukhumi, the Abkhaz capital that in places still bears the scars of fighting against Georgian troops, officials and citizens said they hoped Kosovo would create a legal precedent that they too could follow.

"If they recognized Kosovo, how are we any worse?" said Nodar Sheoua, a student standing in a snow-wet Sukhumi street.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on Sunday. U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday Kosovo's people were now independent. His administration is expected to give formal recognition soon, along with most European Union states.

Western backers of Kosovo's independence say it does not create a precedent, but the ex-Soviet rebel regions call that a double standard which will be harder to defend now that Kosovo has declared independence.

Home to 200,000 people, Abkhazia has run its own affairs since driving out Georgian forces. The mountainous sliver of land that borders Russia has its own flag, elected government and armed forces.

Georgia refuses to relinquish its claim over Abkhazia, and its other breakaway region of South Ossetia -- a stance backed by Tbilisi's Western allies.

COUNTING ON RUSSIA

Tuta Akhuba, a teacher, said the next step had to come from neighboring Russia. The former imperial power is Abkhazia's biggest backer but Moscow has not recognized it as a state.

"All this depends on our President (Vladimir) Putin," said Akhuba. "We ourselves depend on him. ... Our hopes rest on Putin and Russia first of all should recognize us."

Abkhazia's separatist president, Sergei Bagapsh, said at a news conference in Moscow on Monday his region was just as entitled to recognition as Kosovo.

"We will shortly apply to the leadership of Russia, the (ex-Soviet) CIS countries, the U.N. and other international organizations to recognize our independence," Bagapsh said.

In Tbilisi, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili rejected the idea Kosovo set a precedent, but said he feared it could be used to fan tension in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Asked if Georgia would recognize Kosovo, Saakashvili said: "Right now we are all are preoccupied by other things: whether this will be followed in terms of provocations, stirring up trouble locally, and we hope to avoid wars here."

Analysts say Kosovo's independence places Georgia, which is seeking membership of NATO and the European Union, in a diplomatic quandary.

Its Western allies are preparing to recognize Kosovo, but because of its own separatist conflicts, Georgia is unlikely to follow suit.

The Transdniestria region, a slither of land which seceded from ex-Soviet Moldova, said Kosovo proved the international rules that borders were inviolable "were receding into history".

"Kosovo's recognition produces a new system of measures which we believe should be applied to all countries," the semi-official Novy Region Web site quoted Yevgeny Shevchuk, speaker of the separatist parliament, as saying on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Niko Mchedlishvili in Tbilisi and Dmitry Chubashenko in Chisinau, editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mary Gabriel)