MOSCOW - President Vladimir V. Putin threatened yesterday to launch a military strike in the former Soviet state of Georgia, accusing its leaders of "conniving with terrorism" by allowing Chechen rebels to operate from a rugged border region.
Putin's warning, in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, came just a few hours before President Bush's appearance before the General Assembly and used some of the same arguments that Bush has been using to justify military action against Iraq.
"If the Georgian leadership doesn't take concrete actions to destroy the terrorists, and bandit incursions continue from its territory, Russia will take adequate measures to counteract the terrorist threat, in strict accordance with international law," Putin wrote. He had made similar threats on Russian television Wednesday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Putin said his aim was not to "undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Georgia or overthrow the regime of President Eduard A. Shevardnadze. But he accused Georgia of abetting terrorism by failing to drive Chechen fighters out of the Pankisi Gorge, which borders Russia's breakaway Chechen republic. Russia will do what is necessary to protect itself, he said.
A Russian incursion into Georgia would put the United States in an odd position. America has soldiers stationed there, training Georgian troops. At the same time, the State Department has agreed with Russian assertions that some al-Qaida fighters are hiding in the gorge.
Countering threats
Shevardnadze rejected what he called Putin's "threats" and warned that an incursion would be disastrous for Russia. "I do not think Russia would engage in an adventure that would lead to its moral and psychological defeat all over the world," he said, quoted yesterday in Tbilisi's Georgian Times.
Facing growing pressure from Russia, Shevardnadze had ordered 1,000 police officers and troops into the Pankisi Gorge last month. They arrested 13 suspected criminals and one alleged Arab militant but failed to satisfy Russia's demands for wider operations.
Yesterday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters that he would present Putin with plans to attack rebels in the gorge in the next few days. But the usually well-informed newspaper Kommersant Daily reported that Putin had approved plans for specific operations Sunday.
Escalating tensions
In indirect acknowledgment of the parallels between the Bush and Putin communications to the United Nations yesterday, Kommersant reported that Putin expects no opposition from the Bush administration over Georgia, even though Shevardnadze has been considered a loyal American ally.
"Russia will not interfere with the United States' plans in Iraq, and the United States will close its eyes to what Russia will do in Georgia," the newspaper reported.
The warnings follow a long summer of escalating tensions between Russia and Georgia, allies in the United States' struggle against the al-Qaida network.
Yesterday, Russian legislators called for economic and diplomatic sanctions against Georgia's government if it fails to act.
And Georgia's parliament dispatched a letter yesterday to the United Nations, NATO and other international organizations saying Putin "has placed in front of Georgia the threat of aggression."
Some Russian foreign policy experts say widening the war beyond Chechnya would be foolish.
"Putin has made a mistake," said Alexander Bovin, a political commentator and Russia's former ambassador to Israel. "He does it in the same way that Bush does it in Iraq. I hope that, despite what Putin said, we would never go as far as sending troops to Georgia."
If Putin does, Bovin warned yesterday in an interview, Russia would face a second Chechnya. "It will be too much," Bovin said.
'Tired of Chechnya'
Military specialist Alexander I. Zhilin, a retired colonel and director of the Center of Applied Political Problems in Moscow, said the public applauds Putin's hard line.
"Russian society overwhelmingly supports this policy because that society is tired of Chechnya," he said in an interview. "In Russian society, even among the Russian elite, Shevardnadze is considered a traitor. Not just that, but as someone who has lost all morals."
Putin, who also sent the letter to members of the U.N. Security Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was vacationing in the Black Sea port of Sochi yesterday and did not attend Bush's speech on Iraq at the U.N. General Assembly.
For months, Putin has demanded that Georgia bring order to the lawless Pankisi Gorge, home to smugglers and warlords, as well as Chechens who have fled the fighting in their homeland.
Russian warplanes crossed the border into Georgia at least five times over the summer, launching three strikes in the Pankisi region. One civilian was killed gathering firewood Aug. 23 and several others injured. Moscow continues to deny that it launched the raid, despite protests by the White House and European observers.
Putin charged that Chechen fighters were tipped off to the raid and that "no real steps were taken to block them off, to disarm and hand them over" to the Russians.
Poorly trained army
Georgia's ill-trained and poorly equipped army of 5,000 is probably not prepared to fight the Chechens, much less the Russians.
The United States has launched a $64 million program to train and equip a modern fighting force in Georgia, but those soldiers just started training and won't be ready for combat for months.
Putin asserted yesterday that Russia is close to restoring order in Chechnya.
"The results are obvious - on the whole, life in Chechnya is gradually becoming peaceful, the economy is being revived, schools are being opened and housing facilities built," he wrote. Only "vestiges of bandit gangs" are blocking further progress by staging raids from Georgia, he wrote.
Chechen rebels
News accounts offer a different picture. A few thousand Chechen fighters are still able to ambush and bomb 80,000 Russian troops seemingly at will. Rebels armed with a shoulder-launched missile are thought to have shot down a giant military helicopter last month, killing 118 Russian soldiers and others. It was the single bloodiest incident of the war.
Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister who presided over the withdrawal of troops from Eastern Europe, is a hero in the United States and Europe. But some Russians allege that corrupt members of his government have helped smuggle guns and money to Chechen rebels sheltered on Georgian soil.