KIEV, July 7 - U.S. President Barack Obama told Russian leaders in Moscow on Tuesday that sovereignty of other nations, including Georgia and Ukraine, must be respected to maintain international order and to avoid “anarchy.”

The comments come amid speculations that Russia’s assertive foreign policy could result in a second military strike against Georgia, almost a year after its military incursion into Georgian territory.

"State sovereignty must be a cornerstone of international order," Obama said in a speech to students and economists at the New Economic School in Moscow. "Just as all states should have the right to choose their leaders, states must have the right to borders that are secure, and to their own foreign policies.”

"Any system that cedes those rights will lead to anarchy. That is why this principle must apply to all nations - including Georgia and Ukraine," Obama said.

Obama’s two-day visit to Moscow is watched closely amid his efforts to recalibrate U.S. relations with Russia, a move that some people in Ukraine and Georgia have feared would give Russia tool to reclaim its influence on its former satellites.

These concerns have been echoed on Tuesday by President Viktor Yushchenko, whose pro-Western foreign policy course has irritated Russia during the past four years.

“I hope we are not going to become a third party through compromises that will be reached through realization of relations between other countries, including great powers such as the U.S. and Russia,” Yushchenko said at a press conference with the visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer in Kiev.

There were growing concerns among Russian independent analysts and opposition leaders that Russia had been preparing for another military clash with Georgia, Ukraine’s ally that has been promoting a pro-Western course.

These concerns were fueled by an on-going wide-scale military exercise in the Caucuses and the Black Sea, accompanied by propaganda in the state-controlled media that had been openly predicting the new clash with Georgia.

Some analysts even said the Russian leaders could use Obama’s visit to Moscow to legitimize the military attack on Georgia.

Analysts also said that Russia may be considering similar aggressive policy against Ukraine, seeking to destabilize the country and postpone its accession to NATO, a military alliance of European nations that Russia considers a military threat.

Obama, who met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday and had a breakfast with powerful Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, called on Russia to shake off cold war distrust and forge a new global partnership.

The US president emphasized the need to move beyond the cold war days of zero sum thinking and, in a clear call for greater democracy, told Russians that it was up to them to help decide the future world order.

“You get to decide what comes next,” Obama said. “The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground...The future belongs to young people with the education and imagination to create.”

“In 2009, a great power does not show strength by dominating or demonizing other countries. The days when empires could treat sovereign states as pieces on a chess board are over,” Obama said a week after describing Putin as having one foot in the cold war past. “The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game – progress must be shared.”

But Yushchenko said that any improvement in relations between the U.S. and Russia must not come at the expense of Ukraine’s aspirations of joining alliances with European countries.

“We are a European country, we conduct a pro-European policy and we want to see the perspective of European [Union] membership and integration of Ukraine to European markets,” Yushchenko said. “I think it in Europe’s best interests to support in all ways the democratic course of Ukraine.” (tl/ez)