Russian lawmakers raise stakes

TBILISI, Georgia - Russian lawmakers urged the Kremlin yesterday to recognize the independence of two separatist Georgian regions, heightening tensions with Georgia, where the government said hundreds of Russian soldiers remained at checkpoints.

Russian President Dmitry A. Medvedev did not immediately respond to the unanimous votes in both houses of Russia's parliament, but he has said Moscow would support whatever choice the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia make about their future status.

Western countries warned Moscow against recognizing the breakaway regions of Georgia, an allied nation pressing for NATO membership. President Bush said such an action would undercut a U.N. effort to resolve Georgia's border disputes.

"I call on Russia's leadership to meet its commitments and not recognize these separatist regions," Bush said in a statement from Crawford, Texas, where he is vacationing at his ranch.

"Georgia's territorial integrity and borders must command the same respect as every other nation's, including Russia's," he said.

Medvedev signaled that the criticism was of little concern to the Kremlin.

NATO needs Russia more than Russia needs NATO, Medvedev said, and it would be "nothing frightening" if the Western alliance were to sever all ties. NATO has suspended operations of the NATO-Russia Council over the Georgia crisis, which has broadened Europe's post-Cold War fault lines.

Medvedev said: "We don't need an illusion of partnership, when they surround us by bases from all sides, they drag more and more states into the North Atlantic bloc, and they tell us, 'Don't worry, everything's fine' - of course we don't like that.' "

On Aug. 8, Russian tanks and troops poured into South Ossetia, after Georgia launched a barrage against the region's capital, and then drove deep into Georgia proper.

The Russian forces pulled back Friday in what Moscow contended was fulfillment of a European Union-brokered cease-fire. Georgia and its Western allies say Russia has violated the cease-fire's call to pull back to prewar positions, because it has set up posts adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Georgian Security Council head Alexander Lomaia said yesterday that Russia had set up at least 14 positions in the security zones, apparently manned by hundreds of troops.

"It's difficult to count them," he said, "but they say they are deploying at least 20 at each checkpoint and two or three heavy armored vehicles."

Although Georgia bitterly opposes the security zones, the country's small military is unlikely to be able to push out the Russian soldiers. Russia's huge armed forces quickly overwhelmed Georgia's, and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been accused of starting a war that Georgia had no hope of winning.

Lomaia said Georgia would seek to force the Russians out by using "the force of law, not the law of force."

"We will focus on a concentrated international effort to help Georgia to get rid of the Russian forces," he said.

U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Russia was "still failing to live up to and honor" the cease-fire accord.

But how much the United States and Western Europe, which depends on Russia for oil and natural gas, are willing to force the issue remains unclear.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called a meeting next Monday of EU leaders to discuss aid to Georgia and relations with Russia. The French foreign minister said the EU was not considering sanctions against Moscow.

The White House said it was sending Vice President Cheney to the region next Tuesday, for stops in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Italy, and Georgia, where he would meet with Saakashvili. Republican presidential candidate John McCain said his wife, Cindy, was on her way to Georgia.

In Washington, the State Department said senior diplomats from the Group of Seven major industrialized nations talked by phone and agreed the group was "alarmed by reports of Russian plans to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

The group reaffirmed support for Georgia's territorial integrity and discussed the possibility of issuing a joint G-7 statement about Russian action, the State Department said.

Russia is linked with those seven nations in the Group of Eight, so a statement from just the G-7 would underline the exclusion of Russia.