04/09/2008 US Vice President Dick Cheney vowed on Thursday to stand by Georgia in its showdown with Russia, saying Moscow's military push into the ex-Soviet state was an "illegitimate" act which cast doubt on its reliability.
 
"Russia's actions have cast grave doubt on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an international partner, not just in Georgia but across this region and indeed across the international system," Cheney said Thursday during a visit to Tbilisi.
  
"After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy," said Cheney, referring to the 2003 uprising that brought Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili to power. "We are doing so again as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world."
 
Cheney arrived in Georgia on Thursday on the highest level visit by a US official since last month's war between the ex-Soviet state and Russia. Cheney was set for talks with Saakashvili, a day after the United States boosted aid for the beleaguered ex-Soviet republic. Cheney's visit aims to demonstrate US backing for strategic countries in the region as relations with Russia sink to a post-Cold War low, and Washington bids to form new energy alliances to offset Moscow's oil and gas dominance.
 
The trip marks the highest level visit by a US official to Georgia since the country launched a five-day war last month against Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. It is also Cheney's first-ever visit to Tbilisi.
 
His tour is to highlight President George W. Bush's announcement of a one billion dollar aid package for his ally, and shore up the US-Georgian alliance after Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev described the Georgian leader as a "political corpse."
 
Cheney started his tour in oil-rich Azerbaijan, touting common interest in energy security.
 
Announcing the billion-dollar US aid package in Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "With our full support and the support of the entire free world, a democratic Georgia will survive, will rebuild and will thrive." Bush will work with US lawmakers, who may have to approve the funds, to free up to 570 million dollars this year, with the remaining 430 million coming later, she said.
 
The Georgian parliament on Wednesday formally lifted a state of war declared when the hostilities broke out, but Russia and Georgia closed down diplomatic exchanges.
Russia suspended visas for Georgian citizens and repeated that it would pull troops out of Georgia only when a French-brokered peace plan was fully implemented.
Medvedev will seek backing for his country's intervention at a Moscow summit of seven ex-Soviet states on Friday.