Unarmed EU observers will try to keep Russia in check

Published on Monday 1 September 2008 23:08

HUNDREDS of civilian observers from the European Union are to be sent to Georgia to ensure that Russia is abiding by its ceasefire agreement over disputed territories.

The announcement from Javier Solana, the EU foreign affairs chief, came shortly before EU leaders agreed to postpone talks on a future partnership with Russia until the Moscow government withdraws its troops from Georgia.

But Russian officials yesterday warned the EU against making "a historic mistake" by further backing the Georgia government over the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Russian residents want to break free from Georgia.

And with fears that the Georgian crisis may hail the start of a new Cold War, EU leaders appeared to be split about the best action to take against Russia.

One reason is western Europe's reliance on Russian energy supplies. Russia supplies the EU with a third of its oil and 40 per cent of its natural gas – a dependence that is set to rise significantly. As a result, sanctions were not discussed at the emergency summit of EU leaders in Brussels, even though the UK government was pressing for firm action.

There are thought to be 40 EU observers in Georgia and this might rise to 200 next month.

On the decision to suspend partnership talks, EU officials said: "The negotiations on the partnership and co-operation accord will be postponed until Russian troops withdraw to their pre-7 August positions."

Jose Manuel Barroso, the EC president, confirmed the timing of the talks, originally scheduled for 15 September, would depend on Russia's troop movements.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said calling an emergency summit was in itself "an immensely important signal" of the EU's determination to ensure justice for Georgia. Emergency summits have only previously been held over the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Mr Brown said: "While we do want good relations with Russia, it is pretty clear from what has happened over the last few weeks that it cannot be business as usual. It will not be business as usual until things improve."

Meanwhile, there were large demonstrations in Georgia yesterday. Huge crowds surged into the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, in support of the Georgian government.

Others gathered at a Russian checkpoint where soldiers were guarding the "security zone" that Moscow claimed for itself after last month's war.

Large demonstrations also took place in Poti, the Black Sea port city where Russia has a checkpoint on the outskirts, and in Gori, which had been bombed and then occupied by Russians as fighting spread from South Ossetia into Georgia proper.

Several hundred people marched from Gori to the Russian checkpoint at Karaleti, about four miles north.

"I'm very proud of my people. We will be free, we will prevail," said Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian president, amid the clamour at the capital's Freedom Square. "I want to tell the whole world that not only will Russian imperialism not be victorious, but in Georgia the idea of Russian imperialism will be buried once and for all."

The demonstration started with people forming "human chains" by holding hands, in an echo of the Baltic Chain of 1989, in which residents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia stretched the length of their homelands to protest against Soviet occupation.

Russia yesterday warned the West not to support Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo against it until a different government was in place. Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, has warned Europe not to do the bidding of the United States.