Russia Recognizes Georgia's Breakaway Regions

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, background center, and Premier Vladimir Putin, fourth left, attend the Security Council meeting in Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia recognizes the independence of the breakaway Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In a televised address, Tuesday, Medvedev said he had signed a decree on the decision. (AP Photo/ RIA Novosti, Vladimir Rodionov, Presidential Press Service)

Russia Recognizes Breakaway Georgian
Regions -- Yahoo News/AP

MOSCOW - Russia formally recognized the breakaway Georgian territories at the heart of its war with Georgia on Tuesday, heightening tensions with the West as the United States dispatched a military ship bearing aid to a port city still patrolled by Russian troops.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia forced Russia's hand by launching an attack targeting South Ossetia on Aug. 7 in an apparent bid to seize control of the breakaway region.

In response, Russian tanks and troops drove deep into the U.S. ally's territory in a five-day war that Moscow saw as a justified response to a military threat in its backyard and the West viewed as a repeat of Soviet-style intervention in its vassal states.

"This is not an easy choice but this is the only chance to save people's lives," Medvedev said Tuesday in a televised address a day after Russia's Kremlin-controlled parliament voted unanimously to support the diplomatic recognition.

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My Comment: Increasing the pressure on Georgia. This is the political battle that Russia will now start to pursue against Georgia and its Western allies.