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MOSCOW-Russia does not want confrontation with the West but will hit back if attacked, Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday, a day before EU leaders meet to draft a response to Moscow's actions in Georgia.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday said he would press fellow European Union leaders to review ties to Russia in retaliation for Moscow's decision to sent troops to Georgia and recognize two Georgian breakaway regions.But underlining the differences in approach inside the 27-member EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a softer line, saying isolating Russia would harm the interests of the bloc.In a last-minute round of diplomacy before Monday's emergency EU summit in Brussels, both Medvedev and U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is seen as sympathetic to the Kremlin.Medvedev faces growing condemnation from the West, which accuses Russia of occupying parts of Georgia, while the Kremlin said it acted to prevent what it called genocide against the separatist regions."Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself. Russia will develop, as far as possible, its relations with Europe, with the United States of America, and with other countries," Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's three main television stations.But he added: "Everyone should understand that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response." He said Russian law allowed the Kremlin to impose sanctions on other states, though it preferred not to go down that path.Defying Western condemnation of his decision to recognize Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent, Medvedev said that move was "irrevocable."To read more go to:
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