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Russia snaps military cooperation with NATO

— Photo: AFP

Home-bound: A column of Russian troops in tanks and trucks drives toward the Russian border near the town of Ruk on Friday.

MOSCOW: Russia has suspended all military cooperation with NATO in a reaction to the alliance’s siding with Georgia in its war with Russia over South Ossetia.

“The [Russian] Defence Ministry has frozen military cooperation with the alliance,” said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s envoy to NATO. Moscow has recalled the envoy from Brussels for consultations.

A spokeswoman for the military alliance acknowledged receiving notification from the Russian Defence Ministry.

Mr. Rogozin explained Russia’s move would affect delegation exchanges and joint war games. “Instead of supporting Russia’s intervention to save civilian lives in South Ossetia, NATO has displayed double standards,” he said.

NATO Foreign Ministers threw their weight behind Georgia at a crisis meeting on Tuesday, demanding a withdrawal of Russian troops, but stopping short of imposing a diplomatic freeze on Moscow.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of trying to rescue “a criminal regime” in Georgia. He, however, said Moscow “is not shutting the door to NATO” and made clear Russia would not close a transport corridor for NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Russian territory.

Russian TV showed columns of Russian tanks and artillery heading out of Georgia on Friday as Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced Russian forces would pull out of Georgia by the end of the day, leaving behind only peacekeepers. Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said on Friday 450 peacekeepers would be deployed at 18 checkpoints set up in the buffer security zone extending 6-16 km into Georgia from its border with South Ossetia.

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