Russia's decision to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two breakaway regions of Georgia, was reached after careful deliberation, President Dmitry Medvedev said in a recent newspaper article.
"It was not a step taken lightly, or without full consideration of the consequences," he wrote in the Aug. 26 issue of the Financial Times, a London-based daily.
After Georgia launched military action against South Ossetia, "Russia had no option but to crush the attack to save lives. This was not a war of our choice," Medvedev said in the article, titled 'Why I had to recognise Georgia's breakaway regions'.
"We have no designs on Georgian territory. Our troops entered Georgia to destroy bases from which the attack was launched and then left. We restored the peace but could not calm the fears and aspirations of the South Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples," he wrote.
Moscow has argued consistently that it would be impossible, after western countries rushed to recognize Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia, to tell the Abkhazians and Ossetians that what was good for the Kosovo Albanians was not good for them, the Russian president wrote.
"In international relations, you cannot have one rule for some and another rule for others," he said
"I sincerely hope that the Georgian people, to whom we feel historic friendship and sympathy, will one day have leaders they deserve, who care about their country and who develop mutually respectful relations with all the peoples in the Caucasus. Russia is ready to support the achievement of such a goal," he concluded.
On Tuesday, Medvedev signed a decree formally recognizing the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
The move followed a ceasefire brokered by France after a five-day conflict with Georgian forces earlier this month.
Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia on Aug. 7, prompting Russia to send in troops who drove Georgian forces out of the region and took over parts of Georgian territory.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke from Georgian rule during wars in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but their self-proclaimed independence is not recognized internationally.
Source:Xinhua
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