Russia defiant in face of NATO, U.N. anger over Georgia attack

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The Western military alliance Tuesday began curtailing ties with Russia for its "disproportionate" use of force in Georgia, but the foreign ministers at an emergency gathering of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries stopped short of agreeing to rearm the state or to take other such tough measures.

A parallel U.N. debate ended in a standoff as Western powers pressed the Security Council to demand immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia. Russia, which holds a veto on the council, condemned the initiative, which did not come to a vote.

Russia was dismissive of the stepped-up Western pressure. Its envoys called the emergency Security Council session "a waste of time" and NATO's statement irrelevant. "The mountain gave birth to a mouse," said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to NATO.

Georgia's drive to become a NATO member over Russia's objections enraged the Kremlin, analysts say. A Georgian attack on Russian positions in South Ossetia on Aug. 7 prompted the Russian incursion.

In response to the crisis, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, a group representing 56 nations, decided to dispatch up to 100 unarmed peace monitors to Georgia as a possible prelude to deploying an international peacekeeping force, the group announced.

And NATO ministers, in a two-page statement, said that they are "considering seriously the implications of Russia's actions for the NATO-Russia relationship."

Russian military action, they said, "has been disproportionate and inconsistent with its peacekeeping role" in the disputed region of South Ossetia since the early 1990s. "There can be no business as usual with Russia under the present circumstances," said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the NATO secretary-general.

NATO promised to establish a NATO-Georgia Council to strengthen ties — a far cry from Georgia's goal of full NATO membership. And it ignored pleas from nervous Eastern European members for a strong, "don't even think about it" warning against military intervention there.

The notion of collective defense — a central tenet when the alliance was formed in 1949 — is a more complicated matter now that NATO has expanded to include 26 countries, including former Soviet republics, foreign-policy experts said. Although some said NATO might at least try to rustle up a defense for those countries if they were attacked, the concept of collective defense falls apart in the case of Georgia and Ukraine — both in Russia's backyard and sphere of influence — even if they were NATO members.

"If Georgia was in NATO now, would we be defending them? I don't know," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Rice in Poland to ink

missile-base deal

WARSAW, Poland — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans today to sign a deal to build a U.S. missile-defense base on Polish soil, an agreement that has already prompted an infuriated Russia to threaten its former Soviet satellite.

The deal to install 10 U.S. interceptor missiles just 115 miles from Russia's westernmost frontier also has strained relations between Moscow and the West, ties already troubled by Russia's invasion of its former Soviet neighbor, U.S. ally Georgia.

Rice flew to Poland after meeting Tuesday with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, where the military allies agreed to suspend formal contacts with Russia as punishment for the Georgia conflict.

Information from The New York Times and The Associated Press is included in this report.