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Russian envoy: Georgia tries to suck NATO into war
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia accused Georgia on Wednesday of misinforming NATO and the European Union to suck them into a mounting crisis over Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region.
NATO and the EU said this week that Russia had exacerbated tensions by despatching extra peacekeeping troops to the Moscow-backed territory on the Black Sea.
"My friends in Brussels have been disinformed from one side," Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Reuters in an interview after talks with envoys of the U.S-led military alliance.
Russia says the troop build-up is needed to counter what it says are Georgian plans for an attack on Abkhazia. Georgia's pro-Western leadership says it has no intention of attacking, and that its only forces near Abkhazia are police.
"(We) appeal to NATO and the EU to prove their impartiality and objectivity in resolving this conflict and stop being non-paid, freelance legal advisor or advocates of (Georgian President Mikhail) Saakashvilli, who behaves like a political hooligan," Rogozin said, speaking through an interpreter.
"Saakashvili wants war to take place and he wants to engage NATO and European nations in this war."
The crisis between the small country in the Caucasus, a vital energy transit route, and its former Soviet master has alarmed NATO allies, which see Georgia as a future member.
Rogozin said Russia would "defend its citizens". Most residents of the territory, which escaped Tbilisi's control in a war in the 1990s, hold Russian passports.
"Russia will not tolerate any blood spilling close to its borders, especially if it concerns Russian citizens," he said.
Relations between Moscow and the West have been strained in recent months over Georgia's moves to join NATO and the West's recognition of Kosovo.
Rogozin said Russia wanted mutual understanding with the EU and NATO. "We are responsible to provide security for Europe, Eurasia, the whole Euro-Atlantic space," he said.
NATO's spokesman said Wednesday's meeting of alliance members' ambassadors with Rogozin had produced "a clear and sometimes sharp exchange of views, but absolutely no meeting of the minds".
