LONDON:
Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili on Thursday accused Russia of planning
to "redraw the map of Europe by force" after sending troops into breakaway
regions of his Caucasus state.
He said the next step in
Moscow's strategy would be to force "regime change" in Georgia - his own
overthrow. But Russia had much wider aims, he wrote in Thursday's
Financial
Times
.
"Any doubts about why Russia
invaded Georgia have now been erased," said Saakashvili. "By illegally
recognising the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Dmitry
Medvedev, Russia's president, made clear that Moscow's goal is to redraw the map
of Europe using force. This war was never about South Ossetia or Georgia.
"Moscow is using its invasion,
prepared over years, to rebuild its empire, seize greater control of Europe's
energy supplies and punish those who believed democracy could flourish on its
borders."
The Georgian leader
wrote that Moscow had "cynically laid the groundwork" for its intervention in
Georgia by illegally distributing passports in South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
"manufacturing" Russian citizens to protect. It had used "arson, rape and
execution" in the ethnic cleansing of Georgian villages in the breakaway
regions.
"Moscow has flipped
the Kosovo precedent on its head: where the West acted to prevent ethnic
cleansing, in Georgia ethnic cleansing is being used by Russia to consolidate
its military annexation," Saakashvili wrote.
"The next step in Russia's
invasion script, of disinformation and annexation, is regime change. If Moscow
can oust Georgia's democratically elected government, it can then intimidate
other democratic European governments. Where will this end?"
He said Medvedev was now
replicating its Georgia strategy in the Crimea by distributing Russian
passports. "The message is clear. Russia will do as it pleases," wrote
Saakashvili.
"If Moscow is
trying to overthrow our government using its lethal tools, let us resist with
democratic tools that have sustained more than 60 years of Euro-Atlantic peace.
Backing Georgia with Europe's political and financial institutions is a powerful
response."