The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, today accused the United States of rearming Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid, following the arrival of a US Navy flagship in the Georgian port of Poti. "The rearming of the Georgian regime is continuing, including under the guise of humanitarian assistance. They've sent a whole fleet to provide humanitarian assistance," Mr Medvedev told top officials at a Kremlin meeting.
"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," Mr Medvedev said in toughly-worded comments. The war of words between Russia and the US has intensified with Moscow questioning why Washington chose one of its most sophisticated warships, the USS Mount Whitney, to transport aid to Poti. Since bombing the Black Sea port last month during the war with Georgia, Russia has deployed troops at checkpoints near the strategically important port, who patrol in the town from time to time.
"Russia is a state that has to be reckoned with from now on," said Mr Medvedev. "We have lived a moment of truth... The world changed after August 8 this year," he said, referring to the date Russian troops entered Georgia at the start of a conflict over the Georgian separatist province of South Ossetia. Yesterday, the US State Department rejected Russian criticism of the US aid deliveries, saying the Mount Whitney was carrying only humanitarian assistance including blankets, juice, nappies and hygiene products.
"There's absolutely no foundation to this Russian charge," said deputy spokesman Robert Wood. Russia has said US ships in the Black Sea are in breach of an international pact limiting naval deployments in the area. Mr Medvedev's speech came after a visit to Georgia this week by the US vice president, Dick Cheney, who promised US$1 billion (more than Dh3 billion) in aid and accused Russia of an "invasion" aimed at redrawing the map of Georgia.
"After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy," Mr Cheney told the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, on Thursday, referring to a 2003 popular uprising. "We are doing so again as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world."
The standoff between Russia and the West over the Georgia crisis has been sharpened by the arrival of several foreign military vessels in the Black Sea, a deployment that Russia sees as a form of intimidation. Mr Medvedev today described the aid deliveries to Georgia as "political pressure" being exerted on Russia by the West. RIA Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed Russian intelligence officer saying there were currently a total of seven military ships belonging to Germany, Poland, Spain and United States in the Black Sea.
"The fleet of Nato ships has basically been deployed in all the key points of the Black Sea. They are only missing in areas where Russia's Black Sea fleet is operating," the intelligence officer was quoted as saying. Russian troops poured into Georgia last month to repel an attack by the Georgian army aimed at retaking South Ossetia from Moscow-backed separatists. Moscow says it was protecting Russian citizens from the Georgian assault.
Western countries have called on Russia to withdraw its remaining troops from Georgia immediately and have condemned Moscow's decision to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel province of Georgia. *AFP
