Divided EU to discuss actions on Russia

Bitter exchange expected on the crisis in Georgia

As Russian soldiers left South Ossetia yesterday, several women greeted them with flowers near the border with Russia. (Kazbek Basayev/ AFP/ Getty Images)

BERLIN - With Britain and Poland calling for a tough response and the German government divided, European Union countries prepared for a bitter exchange at an emergency summit meeting today on how to respond to Russia's invasion of Georgia and its subsequent recognition of the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The crisis in the Caucasus has rocked the political establishment in Berlin. The German government - a coalition of conservatives led by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democrats - is split over how to deal with Russia, ending several weeks of unity.

The divisions in the country, which has close economic and political ties with Russia, mean that the government will be torn between taking a tough line against the Kremlin in Brussels today and maintaining a dialogue with Moscow that could anger Britain and Poland, diplomats said.

London and Warsaw want to send a clear signal to Russia that the relationship between Moscow and the European Union will be placed under review. Other countries, particularly Spain and Italy, have adopted a conciliatory approach toward Russia, which analysts said only confirmed the impossibility of adopting a strong and coherent stance toward the crisis in Georgia.

Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's conservative bloc, said it was time to consider excluding Russia from the Group of 8 industrialized nations until the Kremlin complies with international demands.

"The West took Russia in as a member of the G-8 grouping of the most important democratic industrial nations even though it fulfilled neither the economic nor the political requirements," von Klaeden wrote in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "Thus, these nations should meet in the old G-7 format as long as Russia is not prepared to find a solution under the framework of the United Nations."

But Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Social Democrat foreign minister - long a proponent of engaging with Moscow who was nonetheless outspoken against Russian actions in Georgia - has rejected any punitive measures, whether they be sanctions or exclusion from the G-8.

"We need a strong and sensible European role to allow a return to reason and responsibility," Steinmeier told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.

Steinmeier, who in July tried but failed to mediate between Russia and Georgia when tensions were high and Russia was sending reinforcements toward Abkhazia and South Ossetia, placed blame for the crisis on both Georgia and Russia.

"The dangerous spiral of escalation must be interrupted," otherwise the entire Caucasus region could become a place of conflict and instability, Steinmeier warned.

Merkel's conservatives are expected to gain some support from Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain. With advice from his defense and intelligence specialists, Brown called on the EU to "review, root and branch, our relationship with Russia," according to The Observer newspaper yesterday. He said it was necessary to exclude Russia from the G-8 and review its ties with NATO, which is already under consideration.

Poland, the biggest of the new EU member states, supports the British stance and also wants the EU to impose sanctions against Russia. The Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, spoke with Merkel by phone yesterday to coordinate their positions ahead of the EU meeting, according to Mariusz Handzlik, an official from the president's office.

Merkel and Kaczynski agreed that the Russian Army must leave all areas of Georgia and both leaders supported the territorial integrity of the country, according to Kaczynski's office.

In addition, Poland's foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, held a teleconference with foreign ministers from Germany, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania, according to the Polish Foreign Ministry. But even the East European countries cannot agree on a united stance.