Russia Says that America Must Choose Between Russia or Georgia

And America answers correctly.

Russia pressed the United States on Wednesday to choose between “a real partnership” with Moscow or an “illusory” relationship with U.S. ally Georgia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday says the United States should choose sides.

“As to choosing, the United States has made very clear that it is standing by the democratically elected government of Georgia,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.

She spelled out the Bush administration’s stance after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Georgia’s government “a special project for the United States.”

“And we are aware that the U.S. is uptight about this project,” Lavrov said in remarks broadcast on Russian television. “But a choice will have to be made someday between considerations of prestige related to an illusory project and a real partnership in matters which indeed require collective efforts.”

Rice, amid reports that Russian troops remained on the move Wednesday, pushed Russia to abide by a cease-fire signed Tuesday by the Russian and Georgian presidents.

Russian military action in Georgia “must stop and must stop now,” Rice said.

Frankly, a “partnership” with Russia at this point from Russia’s point of view is akin to America being Putin’s prison bitch.  That is not anything to which America should aspire.