Its All About Pakistan

05/03/09 US President Barack Obama must make clear to Russia that it would pay a 'huge political price' for any new 'misbehavior' in former Soviet states, Georgia's national security adviser said Wednesday.

Obama must "deliver the message, in that sense, that (the) US stands firm in not accepting any further adventures of Russia outside of its borders in the neighbourhood," Eka Tkeshelashvili told AFP in an interview.

Notably, "Russia has to have an understanding that there will be a huge political price that Russia will be paying if anything happens in any wrong way in Georgia," she said.

Tkeshelashvili said Georgia is not worried that Washington's support for it as a "democratic, strong, independent" state is in any danger from Obama's review of strained US-Russia relations in a bid to make a fresh start.

"It's an attempt to find the ways in which some common interest can be found," she said. "Russia should not have an expectation there will be an unconditional green light on any misbehavior."

Washington strongly backed Georgia during its conflict in August with Russia. It also condemned Moscow's decision to recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Fighting largely ended with a European Union-brokered ceasefire, but Russia has left behind thousands of troops in the two rebel regions, provoking international criticism and a freeze in high-level NATO-Russia ties.

Domestic political pressures may lead Russia to consider renewing a military push in its much smaller neighbor, said Tkeshelashvili, who stressed: "The fact that Russia keeps that as an open option is quite obvious."

"Judging from the facts, what Russia's military presence is on the ground, the situation is deteriorating in Russia, so that I wouldn't exclude definitely that at some point (Russian Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin can have a decision to do something," she said.

Putin may seek "to deliver some victory on (the) international front, in front of his own public because the situation in Russia is so bad that he might see that his power might be shaking a bit there," said Tkeshelashvili.

Moscow has "absolutely ignored" the international ceasefire with Georgia and has kept nearly as many ground forces on hand as it had at the height of the fighting, she said, noting wryly: "It's not something that calms us down."

Obama's warning to Moscow must be absolutely clear because "weak language is not really understood by Russians, usually," she said.