* Russia criticises Cheney visit * Cheney meets with Ukrainian leaders * Uncertainty hits Russian financial markets By Tabassum Zakaria and Conor Sweeney KIEV/MOSCOW, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Friday of encouraging Georgian aggression by supporting Tbilisi's NATO membership bid. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, touring southern Caucasus and Black Sea states after the Russian invasion of Georgia, told Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Thursday Washington was fully committed to Tbilisi's bid to join the alliance. "The new promises to Tbilisi relating to the speedy membership of NATO simply strengthen the Saakashvili regime's dangerous feeling of impunity and encourages its dangerous ambitions," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, hosting Cheney on Friday, said NATO membership was vital to protect his country, which shares a long land border with Russia and has a large Russian-speaking population. Uncertainty over relations with the West hit Russian financial market on Fridays. Shares plunged over 7 percent to their lowest in more than two years. Moscow sent tanks and troops deep into Georgian territory to prevent what it called genocide when Tbilisi attempted to retake the pro-Russian province of South Ossetia by force on Aug. 7. The Kremlin subsequently recognised South Ossetia and a second rebel region, Abkhazia, as independent states, drawing strong condemnation from Saakashvili, his U.S. ally and Europe. Cheney, in Ukraine on Friday, is touring the region to shore up support for U.S. allies Georgia and Azerbaijan, key links in an energy corridor bypassing Russia that transports around one percent of daily world crude oil output from the Caspian Sea. Ukrainian President Yushchenko has stepped up calls for swift NATO membership following the conflict in South Ossetia, but his political rivals are either cool or openly oppose an alliance that giant neighbour Russia sees as hostile. Cheney met Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose enthusiasm for NATO has cooled since she signed a letter in January calling for a Membership Action Plan (MAP) -- the first step towards joining the alliance. Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said Cheney told her that "it has been a challenging time for Ukraine because of recent developments in Russia." Tymoshenko focused her comments on economic ties and said visits by Cheney and U.S. President George W. Bush showed that the two countries "remain close strategic partners". EU RESPONSE The Georgia crisis has alarmed Russia's neighbours, and Ukraine's Yushchenko says NATO membership is vital to protecting Ukraine's territorial integrity. "This is only possible in one situation -- when Ukraine integrates into the transatlantic alliance (NATO), starting with receiving the MAP," he said in a statement on his website. European Union president France brokered a ceasefire to the conflict and EU foreign ministers meet in southern France later on Friday to discuss sending civilian monitors to the zone. A decision to deploy an initial 200-plus personnel could be taken in just over a week, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy returns from a trip to Moscow, an EU official said. The European Union, a major consumer of Russian oil and gas, has threatened to suspend talks on a partnership agreement if Moscow fails to withdraw its troops to pre-conflict positions in Georgia by Sept. 15. But EU leaders said sanctions would only isolate Russia. EU trade chief Peter Mandelson told Reuters in an interview on Friday it was in no-one's interests to use the Georgia crisis to delay Russia's entry into the World Trade Organisation. A U.S. official said Washington was likely to scrap a civilian nuclear deal with Russia intended to lift Cold War restrictions on trade and open up the U.S. nuclear market and Russia's uranium fields to companies from both countries. The United States has used warships to ferry relief supplies to Georgia. The USS Mount Whitney, a sophisticated command warship from the United States navy's Sixth Fleet, arrived off Georgia's Russian-patrolled port of Poti. RUSSIAN SUSPICIONS Russia has accused U.S. warships ferrying aid to Georgia of rearming Tbilisi's defeated army, a charge rejected as "ridiculous" by Washington but which highlights Moscow's suspicions over the increasing number of NATO warships in the Black Sea, traditionally dominated by its navy. Despite Yushchenko's strong pro-NATO stance, membership remains deeply unpopular in Ukraine where it is seen as antagonising Russia. Support for it has shown no signs of increasing in the wake of the Georgian crisis. NATO states in April refused to put Ukraine and Georgia on the road to membership but said they would one day join the alliance. The issue will be debated again in December. France and Germany opposed granting Ukraine a membership roadmap in April, however, and the crisis over Georgia is likely to have confirmed their reluctance. Analysts say the Crimea region in southern Ukraine could be used by Russia to destabilise the country. It hosts Russia's Black Sea fleet in the port of Sevastopol, and the majority of people living there are ethnic Russians. Moscow-Kiev tensions peaked last month when Yushchenko, a stout Tbilisi supporter, imposed stricter rules of movement for the Sevastopol-based Russian fleet. (Additional reporting by Sabina Zawadski in Kiev and Mark John in Avignon; Writing by Jon Boyle; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Local residents are seen outside a destroyed house in the main South Ossetian city Tskhinvali September 4, 2008. Russia's conflict with Georgia has helped President Dmitry Medvedev emerge from the shadow ...
International Humanitarian Law
