Russian lawmakers have asked the president to recognise the independence of Georgia's two rebel provinces, a move likely to anger the small Caucasus nation's western allies. Today's vote was passed unanimously by all 130 members of the Kremlin-dominated Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament. The vote was not legally binding, but experts claim the plea by the Russian legislature would give the Kremlin an extra bargaining chip in its dealings with the West.
Currently, neither Russia nor any other member of the United Nations recognises those claims. Both countries won de-facto independence in the 1990s after wars with the government in Tbilisi, and have survived ever since with the financial and political support of the Kremlin. The West has criticised Russia's failure to withdraw to positions it occupied before the conflict. "Neither Abkhazia ... nor South Ossetia will be part of the Georgian sate," Abkhazia Leader Sergei Bagapsh told lawmakers from the upper chamber before the vote.
The Russian president Dmitry Medvedev also said he saw "good chances" today for solving the long-standing problem of Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestr. "It's reasonable to discuss already today the Transdniestr problem. I see good chances for solving it," Mr Medvedev told the Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin at a meeting at the Russian leader's Black Sea coastal residence at Sochi. Mr Medvedev said the problem of Transdniestr, which lies on Moldova's eastern edge adjoining Ukraine, should be viewed in the context of this month's battle between Russia and Georgia over the rebel Georgian region of South Ossetia.
Events in South Ossetia showed "how dangerous such so-called frozen conflicts can be, given that the Georgian leadership, as they say, went crazy. "This is a serious warning for us all. It is in this context that we should view the question of Transdniestr resolution", the Russian leader said. Transdniestr fought a brief independence war after the Soviet Union's collapse but is not internationally recognised.
It hosts a contingent of Russian troops and a Soviet-era arms dump. Russia and Moldova have claimed to be inching towards a solution, in which Moscow hopes Moldova will permanently renounce any ambition to join Nato. * AP
