Russia formally recognizes Abkhazia, South Ossetia as independent nations
President Dmitry Medvedev signs a decree recognizing the breakaway regions' independence in a move to assert regional influence not seen since Soviet times.
MOSCOW -- Russia formally recognized the independence of two separatist Georgian republics today, pushing tensions with the West and a simmering military conflict in the Caucasus toward a new, uncertain phase.
The decrees signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threaten to redraw the borders of Georgia, a smaller, neighboring state that has chafed Moscow by moving closer to the United States and Western Europe. By recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations, Russia is trying to exert a level of regional influence it hasn't wielded since Soviet times.
"This is not an easy choice, but it is the only opportunity to save people's lives," Medvedev said on state television. He later said that Russia is not afraid to enter a second Cold War, and that it is up to the West to decide whether to freeze ties with Moscow.
"If they want to preserve good relations with Russia, they will understand the reason for our decision and the situation will be calm," he said. "Should they chose a confrontation scenario, well, we lived in different conditions. So we will live in this way too."
While Russia called upon the rest of the world to recognize the rebel provinces, the reaction was a far cry from solidarity. The United States, Britain, Germany and France immediately criticized the decision.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Medvedev's decree "extremely unfortunate" and said the United States would use its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to prevent Russia from changing the republics' status, the Associated Press reported.
"Abkhazia and South Ossetia are a part of the internationally recognized borders of Georgia and it's going to remain so," she said.
Long-simmering diplomatic tensions over the rebel republics erupted into full-blown war earlier this month, when Georgia's U.S.-trained army sought to reassert the central government's control over South Ossetia and ended up at war with Russian troops. Bigger, wealthier Russia easily routed Georgia's fledgling forces and, at the same time, launched a diplomatic battle to convince the world that Georgia had lost its claims to the separatist provinces by sending its army to fire on its own people.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "chose genocide for resolving his political problems," Medvedev said today. "Saakashvili has thus killed every hope for peaceful coexistence of Ossetians, Abkhazians and Georgians."
Medvedev's decrees had been widely anticipated after both houses of Russia's parliament voted unanimously Monday in favor of independence for the rebel provinces. Officials in Moscow, who have been building ties with the separatists for years, have insisted that Georgia lost its right to the territories after this month's war.
megan.stack@latimes.com
Loiko reported from Moscow and Stack from Tbilisi, Georgia.
