Vladimir Putin said tonight that Russia will not be isolated over its conduct in Georgia and warned Europe not to do the bidding of the United States.
Mr Putin spoke in an interview with Germany’s ARD television before a European Union meeting on the Georgia crisis and relations with Russia. The interview was also broadcast on Russian TV.
He said Russia had defended the honour and the lives of its citizens with its actions in South Ossetia and that such a nation cannot face isolation.
He lashed out at European nations for supporting the US on Kosovo’s independence and said Europe would not gain anything by “serving the foreign policy interests” of the United States.
Earlier Russia and European powers took a step back from confrontation over Georgia today, with Moscow urging the EU not to rush into punitive action and France saying now was not the time for sanctions.
Western governments have criticised Russia for sending troops deep into its ex-Soviet neighbour Georgia and recognising Georgia's two breakaway regions as independent, drawing comparisons with the rhetoric of the Cold War.
Georgia said it would cut diplomatic ties with Russia after Moscow recognised its rebel South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.
A Russian Foreign Ministry source told RIA news agency Moscow would respond by closing its embassy in Tbilisi.
"It would be very awkward to have a diplomatic relationship with Russia" while Moscow was setting up diplomatic relationships with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgian foreign minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili said.
Diplomats said they received signals from the Kremlin that Russia would retaliate if the EU imposed punitive measures when leaders of the EU, which depends on Russian energy imports, meet in Brussels on Monday.
But Russian oil companies and government officials denied a British newspaper report that they were preparing to restrict oil supplies in response to sanctions.
A senior diplomat for EU president France said sanctions would not be adopted at the summit. That message contradicted remarks yesterday by French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who said sanctions were among the options on the table.
"The time to pass sanctions has certainly not come," the French diplomat said.
A spokesman for Russia's Foreign Ministry said some countries - which he did not name - were trying to take the EU down "the road to confrontation".
"We hope that reason will prevail over emotions, that EU leaders will find the courage to refrain from a one-sided assessment of the conflict," Andrei Nesterenko told a news conference in Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier issued a strongly worded statement saying the Group of Seven nations, which this week condemned Moscow's actions in Georgia, was “biased.”
In a combative interview yesterday, prime minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia - a charge the White House denied.
Mr Putin also hinted Russia's cooperation with the West on issues such as trade and nuclear non-proliferation could be at stake in the row over Georgia.
Russia mounted a huge counter-attack on land, sea and air after its pro-Western neighbour Georgia sent in troops in a failed attempt to retake its breakaway region of South Ossetia three weeks ago.
Western states accused it of using excessive force and seeking to establish a permanent troop presence deep inside Georgia, a country the West views as a strategic transit route for energy exports from the Caspian Sea.
The Kremlin said it acted to prevent Georgia wiping out the South Ossetian population and was staying on to prevent any further acts of aggression.
It has also accused the United States and Nato of adding to tension by deploying warships to the Black Sea, where the Russian navy has traditionally been dominant.
Reuters