MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev declared Saturday that “Russia is a nation to be reckoned with” after its war with Georgia, again putting the West on notice that Moscow is prepared to use its military and economic might.
With a U.S. Navy ship unloading aid off Georgia’s Black Sea coast within shooting distance of Russian troops, Medvedev’s comments were a reminder that the Kremlin views last month’s war as the start of a new era in Russian assertiveness.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said “the truth is on our side” and likened the situation in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia with Srebrenica — the Bosnian town that was the site of Europe’s worst mass carnage since World War II.
In France, the European Union’s 27 foreign ministers were reluctant to provoke Moscow. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the EU did not plan to impose sanctions against Russia.
“Russia must remain a partner. It’s our neighbor; it’s a large country; and there is no question to go back to a Cold War situation, that would be a big mistake,” Kouchner said.
In the weeks since Russian forces routed the Georgian army and seized the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Russian officials have used bellicose language toward the West. Putin has suggested the United States was to blame for the war by helping the Georgian military rebuild.
At a meeting Saturday of the State Council, Medvedev said the world had changed since the beginning of fighting in Georgia last month.
“We have reached a moment of truth. It became a different world after Aug. 8,” he said.
“Russia will never allow anyone to infringe upon the lives and dignity of its citizens. Russia is a nation to be reckoned with from now on,” Medvedev told the council, a government consultative body of largely regional governors.
Medvedev criticized the United States and other Western nations, though not by name, for challenging Russia’s intervention.
“Millions of people supported us, but we’ve heard no words of support and understanding from those who in the same circumstances pontificate about free elections and national dignity and the need to use force to punish an aggressor,” he said.
The United States has moved to counter Russia, both lambasting Moscow for what it called a disproportionate military response and by providing humanitarian and economic aid to Georgia.
U.S. warships have delivered much of the aid, and Russian officials have questioned whether the aid is a cover for weapons shipments.
At Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti, Russian forces watched closely Saturday as the U.S. naval ship USS Mount Whitney delivered 17 tons of aid for Georgians displaced by the fighting.
