05/08/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 5 August, the Russian minister for foreign affairs quoted by Reuters confirmed that Moscow welcomed the work of European Union observers deployed in Georgia following the Russian-Georgian war last summer but is opposed to US observers joining them. On the Russian television channel Vesti-24, Sergey Lavrov declared, “the presence of EU observers in Georgian territory bordering Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia is an important fact in stability and we support this deployment”. Lavrov said that, “Tbilisi's goal is quite clear, it involves bringing the Americans into Georgia and then using them against Russian soldiers…the risks are obvious and Europe and the US understand this well”. (O.J./trans/rh)