Ukraine said on Wednesday it wanted to discuss charging Russia more for the lease of a Black Sea naval base, a move that could aggravate regional tensions already enflamed by Moscow's conflict with Georgia.
humanitarian supplies to Georgia, Russia said its navy was watching "the build-up of NATO forces in the Black Sea area" and had started taking measures to monitor their activity.
NATO nations condemned Moscow's decision to recognize two rebel Georgian regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as independent states. They called on Russia to reverse the step, which cemented the secession of the two provinces and effectively made them into Russian protectorates.
"Russia's actions have called into question its commitment to peace and security in the Caucasus," the 26-nation military alliance said in a statement. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili urged the West to stand firm in upholding international law.
"Russia clearly intended this as a blatant challenge to world order. It's now up to all of us to roll Russian aggression back. If they get away with this, they will carry on ... they will also attack other countries in the neighborhood," he told Reuters in an interview.
Russia quickly routed Georgian forces in a brief war over South Ossetia this month, the first time it has sent its forces into combat abroad since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The crisis has rattled the West and alarmed other former Soviet republics with sizeable Russian minorities, particularly Ukraine and the Baltic states.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko joined Western nations in condemning the Russian move on Tuesday to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states under Moscow's protection. "We are sorry about this decision, for Ukraine it is unacceptable and therefore we cannot support this position," he said in an interview with Reuters.
Yushchenko said Kiev wanted to raise the question of increasing Russia's rent on its Sevastopol base in Ukraine's Crimea region, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet.
Russia has said any renegotiation would break a 1997 agreement between the two countries, under which it currently leases the base for million a year until 2017.
"We will see how this will develop. We are sticking to the conditions on the timetable for the Russian fleet's presence there strictly," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, told a news briefing.
Nogovitsyn accused NATO nations of "ratcheting up tension" in the Black Sea, but said Russia was not planning to increase its own presence there. "Now we have people flexing their muscles, demonstrating force. We can only regret that," he said.
A US Coast Guard ship carrying post-war aid to Georgia arrived on the country's Black Sea coast on Wednesday, but dropped an earlier plan to dock in a Russian-patrolled port.
The cutter Dallas had been due in Poti, where Russian troops are still manning checkpoints after pushing into Georgia during the war over South Ossetia. Instead it docked 80 km (50 miles) south in Batumi. "This decision was taken at the highest level of the Pentagon," a US Embassy spokeswoman said, declining to explain the reason for the change.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the United States of shipping weapons into Georgia, a comment dismissed by the White House as "ridiculous."
The Kremlin said Medvedev spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- his first contact with a Western leader since Moscow recognized Georgia's breakaway regions -- and gave "exhaustive explanations" in response to her questions.
The deputy speaker of Georgia's parliament, Gigi Tsereteli, said the assembly would meet on Thursday and would probably discuss whether to sever diplomatic ties with Russia, although Saakashvili appeared to brush off this suggestion in an interview with Reuters.
"This is beyond bilateral relations now," the president said.
"Evil Empire 2" screamed a front-page headline in Georgian daily "Rezonansi," using a phrase once applied by US President Ronald Reagan to describe the Soviet Union.
"Is Georgia torn up now?" asked another paper, Sakartvelos Respublica.
Russia says it was obliged to intervene militarily to prevent Georgian "genocide" and defend the lives of South Ossetians, many of whom are Russian citizens, after Georgia attempted on Aug. 7 to retake the rebel region by force.
While some Western governments have said Saakashvili bore at least partial responsibility for the outbreak of the conflict, there was strong and unanimous condemnation of the latest Russian move. "Russia's action only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations," US President George W. Bush said.
Source: Reuters
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