Medvedev Seeks China's Support After West Slams Move on Regions

By Alex Nicholson and Lyubov Pronina

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao today, seeking support from Russia's biggest Asian ally for its recognition of two breakaway Georgian regions, a move widely condemned in the West.

Medvedev ``informed'' Hu about his decision to recognize the statehood of Abkhazia and South Ossetia during a meeting of the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, the president's spokeswoman Natalia Timakova told reporters without elaborating. China has yet to comment.

Russia said it plans to establish diplomatic relations with the two regions, as Russian warships docked at the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi, the Interfax news service reported. Russia's recognition of the regions drew condemnation from Western leaders. U.S. President George W. Bush asked Medvedev to ``reconsider this irresponsible decision.''

``Russia's main aim is to get support from the organization for its military action and approval in one form or another for recognizing South Ossetian independence,'' said Yevgeny Volk, an analyst in Moscow for the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. ``It is clear that Russia is using it as a counterweight to the West in the conflict and its recognition of South Ossetia.''

While Russia would seek to win formal recognition from members of the group, Volk said such a decision for countries like China and India, which have separatist regions of their own, would amount to ``chopping the branch they sit on.''

`Puppet Regimes'

In addition to Russia and China, the organization includes the former Soviet republics Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, while India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia have observer status. The meeting in Dushanbe will discuss terrorism and drug trafficking from Afghanistan, the Kremlin press service said.

Ukraine today refused to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. President Viktor Yushchenko said ``we regret Russia's decision'' on the regions. Medvedev's decision ``supporting puppet regimes indicates the Russian Federation uses the rule of force to resolve international problems,'' Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

European countries including Germany, the U.K., Italy, France and Sweden criticized the Russian move.

Medvedev called his decision on the breakaway regions an ``obvious'' move to protect his country's borders. Russia's acceptance of the independence of the pro-Moscow regions, which broke away from Georgia in wars in the early 1990s, followed its military drubbing of Georgia this month after leaders in Tbilisi tried to retake South Ossetia by force.

Russian Fleet

The missile cruiser ``Moskva'' and two other warships from Russia's Black Sea fleet docked today at Sukhumi on the Russian navy's first ``official visit'' following Medvedev's decision to recognize the region's independence, Interfax reported, citing Garri Kupalba, Abkhazia's deputy defense minister.

Russia has no plans to increase its naval presence in the Black Sea as ships from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization arrive to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of Russia's General Staff, told reporters in Moscow. The arrival of NATO ships is ``aggravating'' the situation in the region, he said.

By recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are engaging in tit-for-tat gamesmanship with the West over Kosovo's February declaration of independence, which was backed by the U.S. and much of Europe and opposed by Russia as an illegal affront to its ally Serbia. Georgia is a pro-Western democracy supported by the U.S. and Europe in part because it controls a Caspian Sea oil pipeline that bypasses Russia.

`Legal Force'

The Georgian situation is a ``special case'' that can't be compared with Kosovo, Medvedev told the BBC yesterday. Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia cited Kosovo as a precedent in their bids for statehood.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russia's recognition of the regions had ``no legal force'' and renewed his call for his country's ``speedy'' entry into NATO. Russia views further eastward expansion of NATO as a security threat.

South Ossetia, about half the size of Puerto Rico, has a population of about 70,000. Russian officials say 2,100 civilians died in recent fighting in the region, which is connected to Russia's North Ossetia region via a tunnel through the Caucasus Mountains.

Abkhazia, slightly larger than the U.S. state of Delaware, has about 200,000 people. Georgia says about 250,000 ethnic Georgians fled a war there in the early 1990s and haven't been allowed to return.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview on Europe 1 radio today that he assumes Ukraine and Moldova are now ``Russian targets,'' following the Kremlin's recognition of Georgia's breakaway regions.

Kouchner, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, said it ``will take 20 years'' to resolve the conflict in Georgia following the conflict with Russia.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Dushanbe via the Moscow newsroom at lpronina@bloomberg.net; Alex Nicholson in Moscow at anicholson6@bloomberg.net