Medvedev: 'Russia is a nation to be reckoned with'

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-07 10:25

MOSCOW -- President Dmitry Medvedev declared that "Russia is a nation to be reckoned with" following its war with Georgia, as tensions between Russia and the West soared to heights unseen since the Cold War.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev attends a UN Security Council session in the Kremlin in Moscow September 6, 2008. [Agencies]

Medvedev said the United States was rearming Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid, after Friday's arrival of the US Navy's Mediterranean flagship at a key Georgian port close to where Russian troops are patrolling.

"I wonder how they would like it if we sent humanitarian assistance using our navy to countries of the Caribbean that have suffered from the recent hurricanes," Medvedev said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said "the truth is on our side" and likened the situation in South Ossetia with Srebrenica, the Bosnian town that was the site of Europe's worst mass carnage since World War II.

In France, the European Union's 27 foreign ministers were reluctant to provoke Moscow, with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner saying the EU did not plan to impose sanctions against Russia.

"Russia must remain a partner, it's our neighbor, it's a large country and there is no question to go back to a Cold War situation, that would be a big mistake," Kouchner said.

In the weeks since Russian forces entered South Ossetia, Russian officials have used hardline language toward the West. Putin has suggested the United States was to blame for the war for helping the Georgian military rebuild.

At a meeting Saturday of the State Council, Medvedev said the world had changed since the beginning of fighting in Georgia last month.

"We have reached a moment of truth. It became a different world after August 8," he said.

"Russia will never allow anyone to infringe upon the lives and dignity of its citizens. Russia is a nation to be reckoned with from now on," Medvedev told the council, a government consultative body of largely regional governors.

Medvedev criticized the United States and other Western nations, though not by name, for challenging Russia's operation.

"Millions of people supported us, but we've heard no words of support and understanding from those who in the same circumstances pontificate about free elections and national dignity and the need to use force to punish an aggressor," he said.

The United States has moved to counter Russia, both lambasting Moscow for what it called a disproportionate military response and providing humanitarian and economic aid to Georgia.

US Vice President Dick Cheney, at an economic meeting Saturday in Italy, said Moscow has given "no satisfactory justification" for its action against Georgia.

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