Russia seeks to avoid EU wrath over Georgia

MOSCOW - Russia moved to ease tensions with the West ahead of an EU emergency summit on the Georgia conflict as Britain pushed on Sunday for a "root and branch" review of the bloc's relations with Moscow.

President Dmitry Medvedev urged European governments to send more observers to Georgia to monitor a ceasefire between Russian and Georgian forces, opening the door to cooperation with the European Union to resolve the conflict.

But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that Russia's military surge into Georgia and recognition of two Georgian rebel regions left EU leaders with little choice but to change the course of relations with Moscow.

"In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review – root and branch – our relationship with Russia," he wrote in a commentary published on Sunday in London's Observer newspaper.

The prime minister said he had warned Medvedev in a telephone call on Saturday "to expect a determined European response" to the situation in Georgia at the summit in Brussels on Monday.

Georgia is calling for sanctions on Russian leaders after breaking off diplomatic relations with Moscow in protest at the decision to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

While the French EU presidency has said sanctions are not an option, leaders are still debating a response that could include measures to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian oil and gas.

"No nation can be allowed to exert an energy stranglehold over Europe," Brown said.

The EU must "more rapidly build relationships with other producers of oil and gas", such as sourcing more energy from the Caspian Sea to reduce over-reliance on Russia, he argued.

Medvedev reiterated Saturday that Russia was "in full compliance with the six principles" of the French-brokered ceasefire deal, despite calls from the West for further withdrawals.

A Kremlin statement called for "the dispatch of additional OSCE observers to the security zone and setting up an impartial monitoring of the acts of the Georgian government".

The 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe decided this month to send up to 100 observers to Georgia and some 20 observers are currently on the ground.

Bolstering OSCE monitoring in the security zone near South Ossetia and Abkhazia could help persuade Russia to leave positions it is still holding in western Georgia.

It would address Moscow's claims – repeated in the Kremlin statement on Saturday –that Georgia is rearming and could stage another attack under the orders of "revanchist" President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Russian troops remain in fixed positions in western Georgia, serving in what Moscow describes as a peacekeeping mission. Tbilisi has labelled them an occupation force.

Russia and Germany separately agreed on the need to calm the situation, the foreign ministry said following a phone conversation between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged EU leaders to show "common sense" and ignore calls for sanctions, while acknowledging Russia was nervous about what's in store.

"If I were to say that we don't care, that we were indifferent, I would be lying," Putin said in an interview to Germany's ARD television.

The powerful former Kremlin leader offered assurances, saying Russians troops "of course will leave these positions where we are now... We will not remain there forever" and declaring that Russia recognises Ukraine's borders.

Russia is facing an avalanche of criticism from the West over its actions in Georgia and has responded with some vitriol of its own, aimed mostly at the United States, which strongly supports pro-Western Georgia.

US Vice President Dick Cheney is due to visit Tbilisi on Tuesday in the latest show of support for the former Soviet republic.

Russian troops entered Georgia on August 8 to push back a Georgian offensive to retake South Ossetia, which broke away from Tbilisi in the 1990s with Moscow's backing.

Georgian Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili called on EU leaders to punish Russian leaders with targeted sanctions.

"There is no point in isolating Russia. But we expect certain sanctions, which won't be against the people, but against the political elite," he told AFP in Tbilisi.

The minister did not specify what the sanctions could involve, although such measures often include travel bans or the freezing of overseas bank accounts.

Georgia on Saturday also imposed visa restrictions on Russian citizens, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying it was a tit-for-tat measure. The new visa regime will take effect on September 8.