CERNOBBIO, Italy: Vice President Dick Cheney, in the sharpest US criticism of Russia since its brief war with Georgia, yesterday accused Moscow of reverting to old tactics of intimidation and using “brute force.”
In remarks at an economic conference in northern Italy, Cheney bluntly rebuked Russia, after visiting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine where he pledged US backing for the former Soviet states.
“This chain of aggressive moves and diplomatic reversals has only intensified the concern that many have about Russia’s larger objectives,” Cheney said.
“For brutality against a neighbor is simply the latest in a succession of troublesome and unhelpful actions by the Russian government.”
Cheney accused Russia, the world’s second largest oil producer, of using energy as “a tool of force and manipulation” in Central Asia, the Caucasus and elsewhere by threatening to interrupt the flow of oil or natural gas.
Russia has tried to “intimidate by threats and severe economic pressure” Ukraine, which along with Georgia is seeking to join NATO, he said.
“At times it appears Russian policy is based upon the desire to impose its will on countries it once dominated, instead of any balanced assessment of security interests,” Cheney said. He noted that senior Russian military officials threatened Poland with attack over its involvement in the missile defense system.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the West of acting provocatively in and around the Black Sea, where the US is using warships to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia.
“I wonder how they would feel if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean, suffering from a hurricane, using our navy,” Medvedev said, adding that a whole US fleet had been dispatched to deliver the aid.
America’s biggest ship yet arrived on Friday, when the USS Mount Whitney dropped anchor off Georgia’s Russian-patrolled port of Poti.
NATO has also rejected talk of a buildup of its warships in the Black Sea, saying their recent presence in the region was part of routine exercises.
Medvedev was speaking at a meeting of his advisory state council, which meets regularly and comprises regional governors. Medvedev said he had summoned the state council to discuss changes in Russia’s foreign and security policy after the conflict in Georgia.
“The South Ossetian conflict showed that Russia will not allow anyone to make an attempt on the lives and dignity of its citizens, its peacekeepers,” he told officials gathered in the gold-and-white St Alexander Hall in the Kremlin palace.
“Russia is a state (whose interests) will now be taken into account,” he added.
