Russia pulls out of NATO meeting over Georgia

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MOSCOW, April 21 (AFP): Russia pulled out of a meeting with senior NATO military officials to protest what its envoy described Monday as "provocative" war games planned by the alliance in Georgia.
"If there will be no reaction (to a Russian complaint about the exercises) we will take certain measures," the envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, said in an interview with Vesti-24 television, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
"I can reveal one of them now: the meeting of the commanders of the general staffs of Russia and NATO, planned for May 7, will not take place," Rogozin said.
He blasted the exercises as "provocative" but did not say whether Moscow would scuttle a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council-the highest-level body linking Russia and the alliance-expected to take place in May or June.
Russia and Georgia have been at loggerheads since fighting a brief war in August, and Moscow has been extremely wary of any cooperation between NATO and the pro-Western government in Tbilisi.
"From Russia's point of view, and from Georgia's point of view, and from the viewpoint of world affairs, such war games carry a clearly provocative character," Rogozin said.
In Brussels, NATO said that it had not been informed about Russia's plan to cancel the meeting of top military brass and that it would push on with the exercises in Georgia.
"As far as NATO is concerned, nothing has changed. The chiefs of defence meeting will take place and Russia remains invited. It is their decision to attend or not," a NATO spokesman said.
But Washington described Russia's threatened move as unfortunate.