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MOSCOW- Moscow's top diplomat chastised the West on Thursday for backing 'those who killed Russian citizens' in the country's war with Georgia and said Russia would 'draw conclusions' from moves to punish it.
'Our Western partners have to choose whether to side with those who killed Russian citizens or to finally give up their unqualified support for them,' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian lawmakers in televised remarks.
Mr Lavrov warned against attempts to punish Moscow, speaking the same day that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to give a major speech about Russia-US relations and the future of Russia in international affairs.
'We are not falling into anti-Americanism, striking poses, adopting the rule of an eye for an eye, and of course we won't fight with Europe... But we cannot fail to draw conclusions from calls to punish Russia,' he said.
Mr Lavrov criticised a 'lack of transparency' in US foreign policy and referred to a Sept 9 hearing in the US Congress where a lawmaker broke with the White House on its pro-Georgia policy.
'This indicates the absolute lack of transparency in American policy,' he said after citing the hearing in which Representative Dana Rohrabacher blamed Georgia for starting the war by attacking the rebel region of South Ossetia.
Ms Rohrabacher's comments, a rare case of a Western politician siding with Moscow on the war in Georgia, have been heavily publicised in the Russian media.
Russia poured troops and armour into Georgia last month to repel the attack on South Ossetia, leading to a deep chill in Moscow's relations with the West. -- AFP
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