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Saakashvili warns on German radio: Russians "won't stop here"

Georgia Materials 29 August 2008 11:41 (UTC +04:00)

Russia's actions in Georgia earlier this month had destroyed the order in Europe established after World War II, President Mikheil Saakashvili told German public radio Friday.

The Georgian president warned that Russia would be emboldened by its military success. "They are not going to stop here," he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk.

"What Russia has done undermines and destroys the whole post-Cold War, post-Second World War European order," he said, reported dpa.

It was the first time since then that a European power had sought to annex territory in a neighbouring country.

Russia had seen Georgia as vulnerable, as it was not under the shield of NATO, Saakashvili said, in a clear appeal for his country to be allowed to join the Western military alliance.

Georgia would not willingly have taken on a nuclear power with a population of 146 million, he said.

Saakashvili called for an international peacekeeping force to be sent to Georgia and appealed to the European Union to assist with reconstruction.

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