World

Add Your Photos and Video to This Story

EU meets as Russia calls for Georgia embargo

by Dave Keating | September 1, 2008 at 01:23 am | 96 views | 1 comment | 5 recommendations

The Russian foreign minister has gone a step further than criticising the West's moral support of Georgia. He is now saying that the world should engage in an arms embargo against the country until its current president is out of power.

Meanwhile, the EU is holding another crisis summit to decide what to do about the situation.

Russia has called for an arms embargo on Georgia as the European Union prepares to meet to discuss possible sanctions against Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for the embargo Monday until Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was out of power, and said the West would be making a mistake of "historic scope" if it continued to support Georgia.

Lavrov's comments came on the same day that the EU was set to meet in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss how to respond to Moscow's recent decision to recognize the breakaway Georgia regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.

Russia has also not fully withdrawn its troops from Georgia after last month's clashes between the two sides.

"If the United States and its allies ultimately opt for the Saakashvili regime, which has not taken any lessons from the recent events regarding South Ossetia ... they will make a mistake of an historic scope," the news agency Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.