Georgia to sever diplomatic ties with Russia
Georgia's remaining diplomats in Russia will leave Moscow on Saturday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani said.
Lawmakers had voted unanimously late Thursday to break off ties with Russia, branding it an "aggressor country" in their conflict over two Russian-backed separatist regions in Georgia.
Russia criticized the decision. "Breaking off diplomatic relations with Tbilisi is not Moscow's choice, and the responsibility lies with Tbilisi," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko as saying.
Russia will have to close its embassy in Georgia if ties are severed, the RIA-Novosti agency quoted an unnamed ministry official as saying. However, both nations' consulates will remain open — important for the many Georgian citizens living in Russia.
Adding to the tension, a lawmaker in South Ossetia said Friday that Russia intends to eventually absorb the breakaway province at the center of the war that broke out Aug. 7 when Georgia sent troops into South Ossetia to wrest back control from separatists, prompting Russia to send in hundreds of tanks and troops.
Russia blasted Tbilisi's military offensive as blind aggression, saying the move deprived Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili of the moral authority to defend Georgia's territorial integrity.
Georgia and the West in turn criticized Russia for pressing further into Georgia proper and for ignoring a cease-fire brokered by the European Union. EU leaders are meeting Monday in Brussels to discuss the crisis.
This week, Moscow announced that it will recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian region with strong ties to Russia, as independent.
South Ossetian parliamentary speaker Znaur Gassiyev said Friday that Russia will absorb South Ossetia within "several years" or earlier. He said that position was "firmly stated" by both the province's leader, Eduard Kokoity, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in talks in Moscow earlier this week.
In Moscow, a Kremlin spokeswoman said Friday there was "no official information" on the talks.
A Georgian lawmaker said his country will eventually regain control of South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia.
"The separatist regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the Russian authorities are cut off from reality," Gigi Tsereteli said in Tbilisi. "The world has already become different and Russia will not long be able to occupy sovereign Georgian territory.
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