EU fears Russia may target others after Georgia

Photo: Georgian soldiers, who returned to their military airbase in Senaki, clean up the trash left by the Russian forces

Russia might have its eye on other neighboring countries such as Ukraine and Moldova after its armed forces stormed Georgia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.

President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia will respond militarily to the deployment of US missiles close to its borders under an American missile shield plan. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement in Poland last week on deployment of 10 US interceptor rockets there. Washington says the shield, also involving tracking systems in the Czech Republic, is intended to protect against launches by rogue states -- a reference principally to Iran. "These missiles are close to our borders and constitute a threat to us," Medvedev told Al-Jazeera television. "This will create additional tension and we will have to respond to it in some way, naturally using military means."

Russia rejects US arguments for the shield and presents it as a move threatening its nuclear defenses. Medvedev had spoken before of a possible military response, but Tuesday's remarks were the first on these lines since Rice finalized the deal.

Russian military and political leaders have never specified what military steps they might take. Some military officials have suggested deployment of missiles in Kaliningrad region, Russia's Baltic enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, and in ex-Soviet ally Belarus could be an option.

Russia's armed forces overpowered Georgia's troops earlier this month after Tbilisi tried to retake control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Russian troops continue to occupy parts of Georgia, and Moscow recognised South Ossetia and another rebel region of Georgia, Abkhazia, as independent states on Tuesday, prompting strong criticism from France and other Western powers.

Asked on Europe 1 radio whether Russia would now regularly choose to confront the West rather than cooperate with it, Kouchner said: "That is not impossible. I repeat that it is very dangerous, and there are other objectives that one can suppose are objectives for Russia, in particular the Crimea, Ukraine and Moldova," said Kouchner, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU should signal clearly its support for Ukraine's efforts to join the bloc in the light of a possible threat from Russia.

"Ukraine could be the next political pressure point for Russia...Therefore it is important from a stability point of view to send a positive signal that it is possible for Ukraine to progress toward the Union," Rehn said in Helsinki.

EU leaders are due to hold a long-scheduled summit with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Sept. 9 in the French Alpine town of Evian.

Like Georgia, Ukraine has a pro-Western president who wants his country to join NATO, a move away from Moscow's sphere of influence which has angered the Kremlin. It also has a large Russian-speaking population, but is much bigger than Georgia.

The Crimea, in southern Ukraine, hosts Russia's Black Sea fleet at the port of Sevastopol under a lease that runs until 2017, and most people who live there are ethnic Russians.

Yushchenko has angered Moscow by suggesting Kiev may not renew the lease. Medvedev warned another former Soviet republic, Moldova, on Monday not to make the same mistake as Georgia by trying to seize back control of its breakaway pro-Russian region, Transdniestria.

The 27-nation EU is holding an emergency summit next Monday and is still considering how best to respond to Russia's actions in the conflict and to its decision to recognize Georgia's rebel regions. EU envoys on Tuesday asked planners to look at options for a civilian monitoring mission in Georgia, but agreed it would be premature to send armed peacekeepers into the region.

"However that would not be ruled out as part of a global settlement in accord with the United Nations," said one diplomat. Any such settlement could be difficult if it needed the backing of the Security Council where Russia has a veto.