Russia Says US May Have Sent Weapons To Georgia
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia is suggesting U.S. ships that brought humanitarian aid to Georgia may have also carried weapons.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said such suspicions are among the motives for Russia’s call for an arms embargo against Georgia.
Nesterenko told a news conference there are “suppositions” that the cargo of U.S. military ships that have brought aid for war-battered Georgia may also have included “military components.”
Nesterenko also said that Russia would welcome an international police presence and more Western military observers in what is now a Russian-controlled zone around South Ossetia, the focus of the war earlier this month. But he indicated it will be a long time before Russia is ready to reduce its military presence.
Meanwhile EU leaders plan to urge Russia not to isolate itself from the rest of Europe.
They say Russia’s invasion of Georgia is unacceptable under international law and has put its relations with the rest of Europe “at a crossroads.”
The comments are included in a draft statement to be issued after summit talks later Monday.
The EU leaders were assessing relations with Russia after last month’s war. But they face few options in punishing a giant neighbor that is a major supplier of energy to Western Europe.
