RUSSIA & GEORGIA. ESCALATING CRISIS sep. 2, 2008. (part 1)

CNN-
The European Union threatened Monday to postpone talks with Russia but stopped short of imposing sanctions following the conflict with Georgia.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the EU will have to re-examine its partnership with Russia if Moscow does not respect a cease-fire agreement.

"We are convinced that it is in Russia's own interests not to isolate itself from Europe," a meeting of EU leaders concluded.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the six-moth rotating EU presidency, says he will visit Moscow next week to see Russian leaders.

"We will be asking Russia to ensure the full and scrupulous respect of the (cease-fire) plan," he said. "The EU would welcome a real partnership with Russia that is in the interests of all, but it takes two to tango. You have to be two to have a partnership.

"Therefore this crisis means that we have to re-examine our relationship with Russia."

Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/01/russia.georgia.summit.sanction...

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Reuters-
Russia praised the European Union on Tuesday for taking a "responsible approach" to its conflict with Georgia by declining to impose sanctions on Moscow but said the EU had failed to understand its reasons for intervening.

Leaders from the 27 European Union member states met in Brussels on Monday and threatened to postpone talks with Russia on a new partnership pact if Moscow did not withdraw its troops to pre-conflict positions in Georgia by mid-September.

But the leaders were unable to reach a consensus on the sanctions that some members, including the Baltic states, had been pushing for, highlighting the bloc's divisions on whether and how best to punish its largest energy supplier.

"In my view, the outcome is double-edged," Medvedev said in an interview with the Euronews television channel, recorded at his summer residence on the Black Sea.

The EU did not understand what motivated Russia to move into Georgia and to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, he said.

"This is sad, but not fatal because things change in this world."

"Another situation, in my opinion, is more positive. Despite certain divisions among the EU states on the issue, a reasonable, realistic point of view prevailed because some of the states were calling for some mythical sanctions," he said.

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL272497420080902

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• RUSSIA
• GEORGIA.
• ESCALATING
• CRISIS
• sep.
• 2008.
• (part
• 1)

[kashelotiks]

again photos from Ossetia , f..ers