Duma wants Putin to back Georgian separatists

International Herald Tribune

Parliament on Friday urged the Kremlin to consider recognizing the independence of two separatist regions in neighboring Georgia, stepping up Moscow's campaign to keep the former Soviet republic out of NATO.


The lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, voted overwhelmingly to adopt a statement calling on President Vladimir Putin and the government to "consider the question of the expediency of recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia."


The statement also says the government should speed up efforts to support the sovereignty of the two regions in case Georgia "accelerated" its drive to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, suggesting that Moscow should move swiftly toward recognizing the regions if the alliance puts Georgia on track for membership at a meeting next month.


The vote was 440 to 0 in the 450-seat chamber.


The statement calls on the government to increase support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgian government control after the 1991 Soviet breakup and have made renewed calls for international recognition since Kosovo's Western-backed declaration of independence.


Moscow has granted most of the regions' residents Russian citizenship and has backed them in disputes with the government of Georgia's pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili, but it formally recognizes Georgia's territorial integrity.


The Duma is dominated by Putin's United Russia party and would not adopt a declaration opposed by the Kremlin. But while the statement is certain to draw sharp protests from Georgia, its adoption is unlikely to lead to swift Russian recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.


Russia opposed Kosovo's independence declaration and warned that Western recognition would encourage separatist movements worldwide. The Duma statement said the regions have "far greater grounds to seek international recognition than Kosovo does."


But Putin said last month that Moscow would not copy Western support for Kosovo by rushing to recognize the Georgian regions as independent - a move that would badly damage Moscow's relations with the West, ruin its claim to the moral high ground in the dispute over Kosovo and potentially spark war with Georgia.


Instead, coming amid Saakashvili's push to join NATO, the threat of recognition appears aimed at pressuring the alliance not to put it on track for membership at an alliance summit meeting from April 2 to 4 in Bucharest.


Moscow is determined to prevent Georgia - a battleground in its struggle with the West for sway on a key energy route - from joining the alliance.