Russia is still failing to meet its ceasefire obligations with Georgia and Washington”s European allies must not overlook this and rush to embrace Moscow, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.
Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said Moscow must pull back its forces as agreed in a French-brokered ceasefire that ended the war in August before there could be “business as usual.”
“I am worried that Russia is not fulfilling its most important obligations under the ceasefire agreement. There are many partners of ours who would like to sweep that all under the rug and return to some semblance of normal operations,” Bryza said in an interview with Reuters.
NATO foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will meet in Brussels next week and review the suspension of high-level meetings of the NATO-Russia Council, the main forum for their ties, which was prompted by the conflict.
Ministers will also discuss the conflict at an annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Helsinki. The OSCE is helping to mediate between the two countries.
“Some would like to move forward and restore what seems to be a semblance of normalcy. We don”t want that sweeping under the rug. We want to hold Russia accountable,” said Bryza, who declined to say which nations he was referring to.
Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi, who was in Moscow this month, is seen as particularly sympathetic to the Kremlin, and Germany also traditionally has close ties.
