Tension grows between East-Europeans and Russians

The EU should consider diplomatic sanctions against Russia and speed up Georgia and Ukraine's EU and NATO integration to show Moscow that "muscle-flexing" does not work, Lithuanian foreign minister, Petras Vaitiekunas, said in an interview with EUobserver, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. "We cannot and will not pretend that the EU will continue doing 'business as usual' with Moscow. This aggression has damaged the EU-Russian partnership," the minister said on Tuesday (19 August), as Russian tanks remained parked 45 kilometers from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, despite a Franco-Russian agreement for troops to pull out. In another context, Ukraine has offered up a former Soviet satellite tracking station to become part of the U.S. and European missile tracking defense system, which the Americans now expand to the Czech Rep. and Poland. The move will no doubt further anger Russia, analysts say. The move drew a threat from a Russian general, who declared Poland a target of Russia's nuclear arsenal after Warsaw signed an agreement with the U.S. to base 10 missile defense interceptor missiles in that country. Both the Ukraine and Georgia have sought membership in NATO, another move that has angered Moscow. Although Russian officials used to state they would not obey a decree of the Ukrainian president requiring to announce the arrival of Russian military ships to the Crimean port of Sevastopol 72 hours in advance, the Ukrainian news agency „UNIAN” says the Russian navy actually announced Kiev ships will come to the port on August 22. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov challenged the Kiev-imposed restrictions Tuesday. The state-controlled ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying the current lease agreement says «nothing about us needing to explain to someone why, where to and for how long the Black Fleet ships are leaving their walls. Ukraine, who took Georgia's side in the conflict with Russia, is not happy with Moscow having sent military ships from its Crimean port.