Poles Ink New Defense Pact With U.S. as Russia Digs In

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UNITED NATIONS — As Russia hardens its positions in the Georgia war, other nations that were once part of the Communist bloc increasingly are indicating a readiness, along with America, to stand up to future Kremlin muscle-flexing. But it is unclear whether such signals are strong enough to register in Moscow.

America and Poland yesterday rushed the signing of a long-debated plan to build a missile shield station on Polish land. According to Warsaw, the agreement showed a commitment between the two countries to defend each other, although Washington denied the pact was related to the Georgia crisis. Baltic countries offered humanitarian aid to Georgia, and their leaders appeared alongside President Saakashvili at a Tbilisi solidarity rally Tuesday night.

Turkey, where a major oil pipeline line that goes through Georgia ends, said it would increase aid to Tbilisi, despite Ankara’s traditional concerns about confronting neighboring Russia. Secretary of Defense Gates said yesterday that American military relations with Russia would be “adversely affected,” adding that “there need to be some consequences” to Moscow’s assault on Georgia. He added, however, that he saw no current prospect for the use of American military force against Russia.

And even as Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said the world “can forget about” Georgia’s territorial integrity, the White House dismissed the comment as “bluster” that should be ignored. Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, noted yesterday that the governments of two separatist Georgian territories, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, have signed on to a cease-fire plan brokered by President Sarkozy of France, while Georgia has not — indicating Russia already sees the two territories as separate entities from Georgia.

The cease-fire pact, which Mr. Churkin described as “the Medvedev-Sarkozy six-point plan,” called on all Georgian troops to withdraw from the disputed territories. But it was vague enough for Russia to insist its “peacekeepers” could remain in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as in areas near their borders, until an international mechanism is deployed there.

According to Georgia’s U.N. ambassador, Irakli Alasania, Russia has not stopped the fighting since both sides agreed to the Sarkozy plan. The cease-fire was violated by Russia in key spots, such as the Black Sea port city of Poti and the central city of Gori, Joseph Stalin’s birthplace, which sits on a major traffic artery of the country, Mr. Alasania said. Mr. Churkin responded that, far from occupying Gori, Russian troops went there merely to secure a munitions and arms plant that was a danger to the residents.

Mr. Alasania praised the efforts of France, Turkey, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Azerbaijan, Israel, and America, “who stepped forward and are providing humanitarian assistance” to Georgia. He told The New York Sun he did not expect the aid that was offered by these countries would turn into a military operation to confront Russia.

The agreement that was signed with Poland yesterday, however, indicated that the Russian invasion of Georgia has strengthened the resolve of some Eastern European countries to side with the West. After 18 months of negotiations, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said America has agreed to augment Poland’s defenses in exchange for being able to place 10 missile defense interceptors on its territory, according to the Associated Press. The missile defense system has infuriated Moscow, and some of Washington’s partners in the project, including Warsaw, were hesitant until now to sign on the final deployment agreement, fearing Russia’s ire.

“In the days and weeks ahead, the Department of Defense will re-examine the entire gamut of our military-to-military activities with Russia and will make changes as necessary and appropriate, depending on Russian actions in the days ahead,” Mr. Gates said at a press conference at the Pentagon yesterday. “My personal view is that there need to be some consequences for the actions that Russia has taken against a sovereign state.”

Secretary of State Rice was due to visit Tbilisi today after visiting Mr. Sarkozy yesterday in France to coordinate the diplomatic steps, which are expected to include a Security Council agreement on a new resolution as early as this weekend. The idea is to cement the European six-point plan in a Security Council resolution that would create mechanisms such as an international observer mission in the two disputed territories.

“The Russians went in with tanks, and we answered with Sarkozy and Rice. You do the math,” the chairman of the United States Naval Institute, a former Marines major general, Tom Wilkerson, said. He said he was concerned that such an equation would send the wrong message for America’s would-be allies and proposed instead to form a coalition of neighboring states that would pose a military challenge to Moscow. The Russians are a “paper tiger,” General Wilkerson said, citing as an example the fact that Russian planes botched an attempt to bomb the BP pipeline in Georgia in the first days of the war, indicating a weakness in equipment and pilots.


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