Georgian leader seeks EU support on Russia

STRASBOURG, France, Nov 14 (Reuters) Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili appealed to the European Union today for solidarity in his country's standoff with Russia, telling EU lawmakers Georgians would not allow a repeat of Soviet history.

The pro-Western leader called for the EU to involve itself in negotiations to help resolve Georgia's disputes with Moscow.

He also warned Europeans they too could face politically motivated gas price increases if Russia got away with doing that to Georgia.

''Today, because we have chosen to move as close as possible to Europe and to align ourselves with Euro-Atlantic structures, Georgia is punished,'' Saakashvili said in an address to the European Parliament.

Irked by the pro-Western Georgian leader's drive to join the EU and above all the US-led NATO military alliance, Russia has severed trade and transport links and hardened its backing for two breakaway regions of Georgia.

Saakashvili accused Moscow of mounting an economic blockade of his former Soviet republic and trying to exert political pressure by more than doubling its gas price.

''If Georgia can get a political gas increase, any other country can get it tomorrow,'' he told a news conference.

He said Tbilisi would not pay the more than doubled price the Russian monopoly Gazprom was demanding since it was not a ''commercial'' price comparable with what other neighbours paid.

''WHATEVER IT TAKES'' Recalling the Soviet takeover of Georgia in the name of protecting minorities, Saakashvili declared: ''We will not allow this history to be repeated, whatever it takes.'' ''After all ... it is 2006 and not 1956 or 1968,'' he said, citing the dates of Soviet-led invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush pro-democracy movements.

He compared Russia's economic pressure with tactics Moscow used to try to stop three ex-Soviet Baltic states from joining the EU and NATO, but which he said had only accelerated their integration into Western structures.

His 45-minute speech won a standing ovation.

After Georgia's prime minister accused Russia in Brussels yesterday of preparing for war and its foreign minister compared Russian actions to those of Nazi Germany, Saakashvili said he would not pour more oil on the fire.

''I do not wish to use this occasion to further elevate tensions between Georgia and Russia or to see this afternoon as a chance to create an anti-Russian climate in the heart of Europe,'' he said.

He said it was time for diplomacy and urged Russia to join in identifying areas of mutual interest and responsibility, winning applause from the European legislators.

He insisted he was willing to negotiate with Moscow and leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on broad autonomy for the separatist regions and called for EU involvement in the talks.

Georgian Foreign Minister Giorgi Baramidze signed a work programme with the EU today designed to boost cooperation under the EU's European Neighbourhood Policy, which does not include a perspective of membership.

Seeking to reassure EU lawmakers at a time of widespread ''enlargement fatigue'', Saakashvili said Georgia considered itself a European country sharing common EU values but his country's membership aspirations were ''a distant goal''.

Reuters SY RS2114