Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russian intervention in Abkhazia must be stopped or the sovereignty of other former Soviet states will be at risk, in an interview published here Thursday.
"Georgia is only the start. Tomorrow it will be Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland. What is at stake here is the whole post-Cold War security order in Europe," he told the German daily Die Welt.
"Georgia has become a litmus test. Europe must show that it stands by its values. If it does not do this, we will see the start of an endless new string of conflicts," he warned.
He said Russia is playing "a kind of politics of redistribution that comes straight from the 19th century" and fails to respect national borders.
Saakashvili accuses Moscow of seeking to annex the breakaway region of Abkhazia, where Russia has deployed extra troops since announcing in April that it would establish formal ties with the separatist government.
He told Die Welt he believed this was decided by former Russian president Vladimir Putin and said Georgia was not sure yet where it stood with his successor Dmitry Medvedev.
"I am not sure whether this is Medvedev's policy or rather something he has inherited from his predecessor," he said.
"I take Medvedev to be a thoughtful politician. But the blueprint for the way Moscow is treating Georgia was written long before the handover of power.
During a visit to Berlin this week, Saakashvili held talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the situation in Abkhazia.
Merkel said afterwards: "Like Georgia, Germany is concerned about the steps that have been taken by Russia."
She added that Germany was prepared to help negotiate between Russia and Georgia and urged them "to remain calm."
Saakashvili has repeatedly called on Medvedev to resolve the issue and said Wednesday that he wanted to forge "a partnership" with Russia.
Russian soldiers have been posted in Abkhazia as part of a ceasefire deal signed after the separatist war in the 1990s but Moscow recently sent in hundreds of extra troops, saying that Tbilisi was preparing an assault.
Tensions soared earlier this month when Georgia detained Russian soldiers near the sensitive border between the breakaway Black Sea enclave and the rest of Georgia. The Russian army threatened to use force if this happened again.
