US President George W Bush on Tuesday sharply criticized Russia for recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two separatist regions in Georgia that have been the source of a three-week long military conflict, according to dpa. Bush said the "irresponsible decision" announced by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev tramples on numerous UN Security Council resolutions previously supported by Moscow and violates Georgian sovereignty. "The United States condemns the decision by the Russian president to recognize as independent states the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Bush said in a statement. "We expect Russia to live up to its international commitments, reconsider this irresponsible decision, and follow the approach set out in the six-point agreement," Bush added, referring to the ceasefire brokered August 11 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Abkhazia and South Ossetia are within the internationally recognized borders of Georgia, and they must remain so," Bush said. After Georgia launched a military campaign in response to separatists attacks in South Ossetia, Russia unleashed a massive assault deep into Georgian territory well beyond the South Ossetian and Abkhazian borders. The Russian assault against the former Soviet republic has drawn international condemnation and US and European warning that Moscow will faces consequences and that its role on the world stage was at risk. "This is not an act that will be recognized by the UN Security Council. It will be dead on arrival," spokesman Tony Fratto said in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is vacationing. Medvedev rebuffed an earlier plea by Bush not to recognize the two provinces as independence states. "Russia is making a number of irrational decisions," Fratto added. The United States has been in discussion with other countries about how to punish Russia but no decisions have been announced. The United States was considering whether to scrap a civil nuclear cooperation agreement. The United States has delivered more than 20 million dollars of humanitarian aid to its ally since the invasion. Russia strongly objects to NATO plans to eventually invite Georgia and another former Soviet states, Ukraine, into the alliance.
