The Arcane Utopian

BRUSSELS, Belgium – European Union leaders warned Russia on Monday that talks on a wide-ranging political and economic agreement would be postponed unless Russian troops pull back from positions in Georgia.

The threat to delay talks set for this month on the “partnership and cooperation agreement” with Russia came after Britain and eastern European nations held out for a tougher line. But Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and natural gas deterred stronger sanctions.

“I think we found an excellent compromise (by) not going back to business as usual, but still making clear that we want to maintain contact with Russia,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

At a four-hour meeting, the leaders ordered EU bureaucrats to study alternative energy sources to reverse growing dependence on Russia, which supplies a third of the EU’s oil and 40 percent of its natural gas.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he plans to travel to Moscow next Monday for talks with the Russian leadership. A cease-fire he brokered to end fighting between Russian and Georgia calls for forces to be withdrawn to their positions before the war.

The Bush administration welcomed the EU’s move.

“This extraordinary EU summit demonstrates that Europe and the United States are united in standing firm behind Georgia’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and reconstruction,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.

Earlier, Russia warned the West against supporting Georgia’s leadership, suggesting that the United States delivered weapons as well as aid to the former Soviet republic and calling for an arms embargo until the Georgian government falls.

“If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Hours after Lavrov’s comments, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry suggested U.S. ships that carried humanitarian aid to Georgia’s Black Sea coast following last month’s war may also have delivered weapons.

Without naming a specific country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said there were “suppositions” that the cargo of military ships bringing aid to Georgia may also have included “military components that will be used for the rearmament” of Georgia’s military. He provided no evidence, but said such suspicions were a reason for Russia’s call for an arms embargo.

Lavrov reserved particular criticism for the United States, which has trained Georgian troops, saying such aid had failed to give Washington sufficient leverage to restrain the Georgian government. Instead, he said, “It encouraged the irresponsible and unpredictable regime in its gambles.”

Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon had immediate comment.

Human Rights W

Related posts: Ghost car, Indy 500 live streaming, Mark herndon, Clancy shields, Letterpress printing plate