Russia will not let military operations near its borders - Rogozin

Russia will not let military operations near its borders - Rogozin

05.05.2008, 19.15

MOSCOW, May 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s permanent representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin believes that Tbilisi has moral sponsors in NATO who heed Georgia’s accusations against Moscow. "Russia will not let military operations develop near its borders, but Russia’s active efforts to prevent the war are being interpreted in official Tbilisi as aggression against Georgia's sovereignty," Rogozin said on Vesti television channel on Monday.

Russia realizes pretty well that if it does not assume an active position disengaging the warring sides the war will continue in direct proximity of Russia's borders. Precisely, in the place in North Caucasus where military conflicts took place earlier, Rogozin said. He compared Georgia's activities with the conduct of Nazi Germany that first accused other countries of encroaching on its sovereignty and then sent its own tank divisions into the countries it accused.

"Tbilisi has its moral and political sponsors in NATO who are eager to believe Georgia’s lies about Moscow’s intrigues to justify Georgia’s accelerated integration into NATO. But doing that, NATO violates its own principles - there were no precedents in NATO history when it admitted a country into the alliance that has two slow wars dragging on its own territory," Rogozin said.

"To accelerate its own integration into NATO Tbilisi has to flare up anti-Russian hysteria in the hope to make NATO officials who are still undecided fling NATO doors open to Georgia," Rogozin said.