Russia seeks to shore up alliances at ex-Soviet summit

RUSSIA: President Dmitry Medvedev will seek backing for Russia’s intervention in Georgia as leaders of seven ex-Soviet states meet on Friday, officials said, amid signs of a Kremlin drive to fortify regional alliances.

Russia hopes the meeting of a security bloc called the Collective Security Treaty Organisation will build on another gathering in Central Asia last week that included China, said presidential advisor Sergei Prikhodko.

“We expect from our partners... confirmation of understanding and a principled assessment of Georgia’s actions, which led to this crisis,” Prikhodko said, according to the RIA Novosti agency.

Friday’s gathering in Moscow of the heads of Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan comes as the Kremlin has brushed off Western condemnation of its surge into southern neighbour Georgia and subsequent recognition of two Georgian regions as independent.

This push comes as US Vice President Dick Cheney was making his own tour of US-friendly states in the region.

Moscow, Thursday, AFP