The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Moscow

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev turned to Asian allies Thursday for support in the Georgia crisis as the Group of Seven condemned Moscow in a standoff that is stoking fears of a new Cold War.

Medvedev joined Chinese President Hu Jintao and leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, set up in 2001 to counter NATO influence in Central Asia.

The summit opened after the Group of Seven industrialised powers strongly condemned Russia's recognition of Georgia's rebel regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

"We deplore Russia's excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia," said the statement from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

Russia lashed out at the West for ratcheting up tensions in the Black Sea and warned that attempts to isolate Moscow would have harmful economic effects.

A new protest came from Georgian ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze, who said Russia would regret its recognition of the regions.

"They will live to regret it," Shevardnadze said in an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, adding that the move would "encourage separatist movements within ethnically diverse Russia."

Shevardnadze called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

On a visit to Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned Russia not to start a new Cold War.