MOSCOW — Russia’s president said Sunday his country will give military aid to the two separatist regions at the center of the war with Georgia — signaling Moscow has no intention of backing down in the face of Western pressure.
Dmitry Medvedev also warned that American domination of world affairs is unacceptable, though he insisted that Russia did not want hostile relations with the United States and other Western nations.
Medvedev’s decision Tuesday to recognize the independence of Georgian breakaway provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia drew condemnation from the West. Though no other countries have followed Russia’s lead, Medvedev reaffirmed the decision Sunday.
“We have made our decision, and it’s irreversible,” he said in a speech on Russian television.
Georgia has asked the European Union and the U.S. to impose sanctions on companies and individuals that do business in Abkhazia and South Ossetia without its permission.
But EU leaders seeking to punish Russia face limited options and are likely to choose diplomatic pressure to isolate Moscow at their summit today.
Sanctions appear remote — not least because western Europe depends on Russia’s energy supplies. But the 27 European leaders are expected to offer more humanitarian, economic and moral support for Georgia and signal that normal relations with Moscow are impossible with Russian troops violating a cease-fire agreement.
Possible EU actions against Russia include a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, holding off on talks for a broader economic partnership with Moscow, adding to the $18 million in humanitarian aid to repair Georgia’s infrastructure and contributing to the peace-monitoring mission that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe operates there.
Sanctions, though, appear unlikely. Russia supplies the EU with a third of its oil and 40 percent of its natural gas.
The European Commission has argued that although the EU needs Russia for oil and gas, Moscow also needs EU capital and expertise to develop new energy fields. Russia has vast gas and oil deposits, but output is not growing much because of aging pipelines and monopolistic policies.
Russia’s economy has already been affected. After the war, investors began leaving Russia and stock markets plunged.
