Russia submitted a draft resolution on Georgia to the UN Security Council Tuesday, urging the international body to insist on the withdrawal of Georgian troops from the Kodori Gorge and to prolong the mandate of Russian peacekeepers in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia until April 15, 2007.
"Some Security Council members believe they can approach this issue wearing kid gloves," Vitaly Churkin said. "Russia is set to work with the resolution it proposed, which offers a clear and principled characterization of the Georgian leadership's actions."
Churkin said "European partners" submitted the second draft, but did not clarify which countries he meant.
"The work will be complicated," he said.
Russia previously sought UN action amid an "espionage" scandal with Georgia last week. Tbilisi released four Russian officers it charged with spying on Monday, but the row between the two former Soviet republics continues. In particular, Moscow refuses to lift a temporary ban on travel and postal links with the South Caucasus country.
The bloody conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia erupted in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. A ceasefire agreement introduced peacekeeping troops from the former Soviet republics, including Russia, into the area.
