Russia says NATO relations will change

MOSCOW, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- NATO's stand on the Russia-Georgia clash likely will affect relations with the international treaty alliance, the Russian NATO ambassador said Thursday.

Dmitry Rogozin also accused Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of war crimes and some members of the Western media of complicity.

Rogozin said Russian relations with NATO "cannot but be affected" after NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer "failed to say a word about the victims of the attack. Not a single word has been uttered in condemnation of the aggression" but Russia was criticized.

In a mission to expel Georgian troops from the South Ossetia region and to reinforce Russian peacekeepers, Moscow sent some 10,000 troops and several hundred armored vehicles into the area, RIA Novosti reported.

Scheffer told a news conference the allies "condemned and deplored (Russia's) excessive, disproportionate use of force. Georgia is a respected partner and friend and one day Georgia will join NATO."

Western reports said that irregular paramilitary groups following Russian regulars had engaged in "looting, burning, murdering and rape" in Georgia while Russian media reported atrocities by Georgian troops, including women and children being "burned alive."