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Ex-Soviet States, Poland Rally for Georgia

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states, all once held within the Soviet Union's embrace, are rallying behind Georgia against Russia's military incursion and any threat to their own independence.

``They're all seriously worried that it's Georgia today and one of them tomorrow,'' said Krzysztof Bobinski, director of the Warsaw-based Unia & Polska Foundation, a political institute. ``That Russia wants to re-establish the position it held in the region for literally hundreds of years.''

In a televised show of support for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, the leaders of Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia joined a nighttime rally in his capital, Tbilisi, that lasted into yesterday morning.

``Russia's aggression against sovereign neighboring country Georgia shows to the whole world that the peaceful period after the end of the Cold War has ended,'' Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said in an e-mailed response to questions. ``Russia's actions increase security risks not only for Russia's neighbors, but for the whole world.''

At the rally, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said Russia ``has shown its true face'' by undertaking a hostile incursion into Georgia, first to oust the national government's military from the breakaway region of South Ossetia and then to attack targets elsewhere. Kaczynski promised to help rebuild Georgia's economy.

`Democratic Choices'

By traveling to Tbilisi, the five leaders want ``to demonstrate our firm support for the democratic choices of the Georgian people and express our approval for Georgia's decision not to submit to the aggressor,'' Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told the Tbilisi crowd.

``I don't think what Kaczynski and the others have said is just rhetoric,'' Bobinski said.

Their presence in Georgia sent an important message to the West, said Nathaniel Copsey of the European Research Institute at the University of Birmingham in the U.K.

``There are a lot of EU member countries that listen to Poland and the Baltic states carefully and with sympathy,'' Copsey said. ``So their solidarity with Georgia did have an impact.''

American officials considered Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko's presence in the delegation notable because it shows his country's determination to be a European ally, according to a U.S. official who briefed reporters on Aug. 12.

Joining NATO

Like Georgia, Ukraine and the Baltic states were Soviet republics, gaining their independence around the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Poland spent more than 40 years as a Soviet satellite after World War II, overthrowing the communist regime in 1989 and joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 10 years later.

All the countries involved have sought NATO membership as a bulwark against Russia, with which they have a common border. According to Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich, the current conflict is ample proof that the alliance must admit Georgia and Ukraine quickly.

``No country neighboring Georgia would have taken such a confrontational stance had it been threatened with a joint operation from the entire Atlantic alliance,'' Klich told daily Rzeczpospolita in an interview published today. ``The moral is simple: NATO should offer Georgia and Ukraine plans to gain membership as soon as possible.''

Tougher Stance

The first signs of a newly hardening attitude toward Russia emerged in Ukraine yesterday, when Yushchenko restricted movement of the Russian Navy, part of which is based at a Ukrainian Black Sea port.
In a decree published on his Web site, Yushchenko said Russia's navy, which leased the port near the Crimean city of Sevastopol after the Soviet Union collapsed, must coordinate all future movement of ships with Ukrainian officials, including the Defense Ministry.

The country used to allow Russian vessels to cross Ukrainian waters ``without any control,'' Yushchenko said. ``Such a situation threatens Ukrainian national security, especially when the Russian fleet is used against third countries.''

Yushchenko offered to send peacekeepers to the disputed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both now controlled by Russia. ``We have come to confirm your independence and territory integrity: Those are our values,'' he said in Tbilisi.

Anti-Missiles

In Poland, a European Union member, talks on locating part of a planned U.S. missile-defense shield on Polish territory made headway yesterday amid renewed demands from Poland for increased security guarantees in the wake of the Georgian conflict.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Rood is meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski over two days of talks aimed at allowing the U.S. to site 10 interceptor missiles in Poland. The U.S. has said the shield is part of a forward line of defense against possible attacks from countries such as Iran.
Russia has called the proposed system a threat to its security.

``I don't want to forejudge the outcome of the negotiations, but I can tell you that Prime Minister Tusk's requests are nearer to being met than they were a month ago,'' Sikorski told reporters in Warsaw yesterday.

While the U.S. signed an agreement last month with the Czech Republic on locating a radar base there, the Poles are holding out for more financial and logistical help to develop its armed forces -- demands the government says are newly justified by the fighting in Georgia.

``If the Georgian conflict shows us anything, it's that Poland really does need security guarantees above and beyond what the U.S. wants to give,'' Roman Kuzniar, a professor at Warsaw University's Institute of International Relations, said by telephone.

Poland is wary of opposition from Russia, which has warned it will build up military defenses along its frontiers if the project goes ahead.

Bloomberg.com: Germany