RUSSIA: Russian President likens Georgia's assault on South Ossetia to 9/11

Record ID: 1475291

  • Title: RUSSIA: Russian President likens Georgia's assault on South Ossetia to 9/11
  • Date: 13th September 2008
  • Summary: (BN11) RIGA, LATVIA (SEPTEMBER 12, 2008) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF PRESIDENTIAL PALACE LATVIAN PRESIDENT VALDIS ZATLERS AND NATO SECRETARY GENERAL, JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER AT NEWS CONFERENCE SCHEFFER AND ZATLERS STANDING DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NATO SECRETARY GENERAL, JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER SAYING: "We have our fundamental differencies with the Russian Feder
  • Embargoed: 28th September 2008 12:45
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAAT1I0AYOYEW2DQHR1602YWPYH
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Medvedev says August 8 - when Georgia's conflict with Russia started - was like 9/11 was for the United States.
    President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday (September 12) NATO's promise to extend membership to Georgia was unjust, humiliating and intolerable to Russia.
    Likening Georgia's assault on South Ossetia to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Medvedev said he would have acted equally decisively in sending in Russian forces, even if Tbilisi already had a firm path to NATO entry.
    He told a group of foreign reporters that by extending a promise of future membership to Georgia and Ukraine, NATO had illustrated a willingness to take in two malfunctioning states simply to get closer to Russia's borders.
    Medvedev said Georgia's attack on South Ossetia and the West's failure to back Russia had exposed as an illusion any lingering belief in Russia that the world was a just place.

    "The world has changed. Almost immediately after the events in the Caucasus it occurred to me that August 8 was for us almost what 9/11 was for the United States.

    "The United States and the whole of humanity drew many lessons from September 11, 2001. I would like to see August 8, 2008 result in many useful lessons as well" he said.
    Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and many other Russian officials have publicly accused Washington of emboldening Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to attack the breakaway region of South Ossetia last month.
    Russia responded by sending in its tanks. Hundreds died and tens of thousands were displaced in the five-day war.
    The head of the NATO military alliance, meanwhile, calmed fears in the Baltic states on Friday (September 12) over what some in the region see as a more aggressive Russia and saw no need for special defence plans.
    Estonia has urged NATO to consider building bases in the Baltic states, while calls have been made in the media for a defence plan for the region to be drawn up.
    NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference, after meeting Latvian President Valdis Zatlers and the three Baltic foreign ministers, that wasn't necessary and although NATO had fundamental differences with the Russian federation it did not consider Russia a threat.
    But de Hoop Scheffer promised NATO air patrols would continue in the Baltic skies.
    Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia joined NATO and the European Union in 2004. As former Soviet states with a history of domination by Russia, they remain nervous over their powerful neighbour.
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