Press anxiety over power games

Moscow has engaged in 'cunning manoeuvring' - Georgia's Rezonansi

Newspapers in Georgia worry that Moscow is seeking to reassert itself in the former Soviet republic by exploiting tensions within the country's breakaway regions, while in Moscow the papers are keen to underline Russia's authority in the region.

Moscow still has imperialist ambitions and a great power mind-set Rezonansi

Georgia's Rezonansi says that due to US "hesitancy", Russia had been able to gain a "diplomatic advantage" in the country.

Moscow's "cunning manoeuvring", it says, was "only a prelude to subsequent plans for gaining a foothold in Georgia" and securing maximum influence over the forthcoming round of presidential and parliamentary elections.

Moscow "still has imperialist ambitions and a great power mind-set", the paper warns.

Dilis Gazeti goes further in speaking of the "impertinent" steps taken by Russia towards strengthening relations with Georgia's breakaway regions and criticises Moscow for "inciting separatism".

The regions, it says, are the "only lever" available to Moscow in seeking to influence the outcome of the presidential elections.

A political commentator warns that Russia's help at the height of the recent crisis did not come free.

Moscow, he says, will be "demanding dividends" following its mediation in the conflict. Their nature will depend on the stance taken by the new authorities and the strength of Russia's "appetite".

The way things are going, we are going to have not an ally, but a new member of NATO on our southern borders Komsomolskaya Pravda

Mtvari Gazeti agrees, saying that with regard to Georgia's regions, Moscow "does not intend to let go of its powerful political tools".

'Trump cards'

Moscow's Komsomolskaya Pravda is worried that Russia's interests risk being compromised in what it sees as a power game between Moscow and Washington being played out in Georgia.

"The way things are going, we are going to have not an ally, but a new member of Nato on our southern borders", it says.

And the paper urges Russia to capitalise on what it sees as its upper hand.

"Russia holds all the trumps in Georgia," it says. But the question is, "Are we going to use them properly? Or are we playing suicide chess?"

Moskovskiy Komsomolets adopts a sterner tone, using the Georgia scenario to warn other CIS leaders that allying themselves with the US could prove futile.

"President Shevardnadze was on friendly, even intimate, terms with Washington," it says. "But despite his faithful service to US interests, Washington treated its old friend quite unceremoniously".

"The lesson is that even close friendship with the Americans does not mean that when the time comes you will not be treated like an unwanted puppy. Other CIS leaders would do well to remember that."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.