Cheney rallies NATO to ward off Russian power grab

CERNOBBIO, Italy - Casting Moscow as a brutal regime that aims to recapture its Soviet-era dominance, US Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday urged NATO to stand together against threats to democracy.

In the US administration's most hawkish tone since Russia's five-day war with Georgia last month over breakaway territory, Cheney reminded the West of its "responsibilities" and slammed Russia's "chain of aggressive moves."

Cheney's tough talk came hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that Moscow was a "force to be reckoned with," as tensions between Russia and the West soared to heights unseen since the Cold War.

"Russia has a choice to make, and we in the transatlantic alliance have responsibilities," Cheney told a gathering of world political and financial leaders in Italy, after visiting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine this week to pledge US support.

"Our prevailing need is for unity of purpose," he said.

"We know that if one country is allowed to unilaterally redraw the borders of another, it will happen -- and it will happen again. We know that if we permit a new line to be drawn across Europe, that line will be drawn."

Cheney hailed the demise of the Soviet Union as a historic milestone for freedom and said that although the West had left those days behind, Russia appeared to seek a return to the Soviet era.

"At times it appears that Russian policy is based upon the desire to impose its will on countries it once dominated, instead of any balanced assessment of security interests," Cheney said.

He recalled Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's statement that "he regards the demise of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century."

"Opinions differ, so let me state my own: The demise of the Soviet Union was inevitable, and was the greatest forward step for human liberty in the last sixty years," he added.

"The old ways are gone, and the Cold War is over."

He also said Russia was defying its responsibilities under a French-brokered ceasefire and declared Russia was on an "opposite course" from the West.

"Though aware of these responsibilities, Russia has yet to meet them. Indeed, it has taken the opposite course, by recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states," Cheney said.

Cheney pointed to Russia's military action over the rebel region of South Ossetia, as well as Russian arms sales to Middle East militants, its energy prowess in the region, threats against NATO-member Poland and its defiance of a French-brokered ceasefire accord.

"Recent occurrences in Georgia, beginning with the military invasion by Russia, have been flatly contrary to some of our most deeply held beliefs," Cheney said.

"Russian forces crossed an internationally recognized border, into a sovereign state; fueled and fomented an internal conflict; conducted acts of war without regard for innocent life," he said.

"All this against a nation that has a democratically elected government and an orientation towards the West," Cheney said.

"This chain of aggressive moves and diplomatic reversals has only intensified the concern that many have about Russia's larger objectives. For brutality against a neighbor is simply the latest in a succession of troublesome and unhelpful actions by the Russian government," he said.

"Let us reaffirm that NATO will provide steady leadership to combat all threats to democracy, whether from outside coercion, or terrorism or the spread of deadly technology."

The United States led Western condemnation of Russia's military action in Georgia. This week it announced a one-billion-dollar aid package to help the country rebuild infrastructure and care for displaced people.

Russia has sought to rally ex-Soviet allies to its side and ratcheted up anti-US rhetoric, while maintaining what it calls peacekeepers inside Georgian territory.

Earlier in Moscow, Medvedev renewed accusations that the United States was rearming Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid and warned: "Russia is a state that has to be reckoned with from now on."

Cheney's trip is part of US diplomatic push to advance NATO membership talks for Georgia and Ukraine, which Russia opposes, and to press for alternate oil and gas pipelines so that the region is less dependent on Russian energy.

Cheney delivered his address after talks with world leaders including Israeli President Shimon Peres and former Spanish president Jose Aznar at the Ambrosetti forum near Lake Como.

On his tour of Baku, Tbilisi and Kiev this week, he pledged Washington's "deep and abiding interest" in those countries' "well being and security."