Georgia ‘Bewildered’ over Russia’s Arms Decree

The Russian presidential decree warning with sanctions to countries providing arms to Georgia causes “at least bewilderment,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on January 19.

Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has signed a decree ordering the government “either to restrict or cut military-technical and military-economic cooperation” with countries providing Russian or Soviet made or designed weapons to Georgia. The decree also orders the government “to immediately propose special economic measures” against those countries or “foreign organizations and citizens,” which provide military equipment to Georgia.

“Russia threatens with sanctions to the international community for the cooperation with a sovereign, democratic state in the field of security, while Russia itself has been providing for decades arms to all those odious regimes, which endanger international security and stability in various regions of the world,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that Russia has been arming for years the separatist regimes in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“It is absurd when Russia adopts such a document, when the country itself pulled out from the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty,” it said.

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