Russia acted like a colonial power

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg said that when Russia invaded Georgia last month it acted like a colonial power, Reuters reports.

We have recently witnessed systematic provocations and finally military aggression of a powerful country, a permanent member of the Security Council, against its small neighbor with the aim to carve it up," Karel Schwarzenberg told the U.N. General Assembly.

"This action was designed to create two tiny entities totally dependent (on) its administrative, economic and military structures. Colonial powers used to act this way." 

Schwarzenberg also suggested that Moscow had violated a fundamental principle of the U.N. charter and international law -- that disputes should be resolved peacefully and without resorting to military force, except in self-defence.