Sanctions against Russia over its actions in Georgia would hurt the EU more than they would hurt Russia, Moscow's ambassador to the UK has said.
Yuri Fedotov was speaking on the eve of an EU summit on the crisis at which leaders are likely to discuss the possibility of imposing sanctions.
He told the BBC that Russia did not want any further confrontation and was not seeking a new Cold War.
Germany and the UK have taken divergent positions on how the EU should proceed.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called in a newspaper Seven Czechs leave Georgia, no Czech in area of fighting-official ...
EU, Russia Open Talks on New Strategic Partnership ... article for a fundamental review of relations with Russia to prevent further "Russian aggression".
But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said unilateral actions by both Russia and Georgia had worsened the crisis.
In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, he said the EU must play a strong role in preventing further escalation.
Russia's four-day war with Georgia began on 7 August when Georgia tried to regain control of its breakaway South Ossetia province by force and Russia counter-attacked deep into Georgia.
'Equal partner'
The EU gets about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia, which is also a major oil exporter.
Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told Reuters news agency Moscow had no plans to use energy supplies as a political tool, and said the prospect of any EU sanctions was "highly improbable".
Ambassador Fedotov told the BBC that "any sanctions [would] hurt the European Union first of all much more than Russia".
"Russia is not, has no intention to continue this confrontation..." he said.
"But if our partners would prefer to chose another option, of course Russia will reply, will react."
Mr Fedotov also argued that the world needed to understand what the modern, post-Soviet Russia was about.
"Russia wants to be an equal partner... but the partnership should not be the kind of partnership between the horseman and horse, but of two equal individuals," he said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Russian TV there was no justification for a "cooling-off" in Russia-EU relations because Moscow had acted entirely within international law.
"Passions are flying high..." he said.
"So far, we have seen no practical steps that would bear evidence to a cooling-off. I hope this won't happen, because no matter what, whatever is being said, the truth is on our side."
Mr Putin, who earlier accused US interests of fomenting the crisis in Georgia, suggested that some EU states were seeking to serve "someone else's foreign political interests".
'Beyond the current day'
Georgian demonstrators are planning to hold rallies in Tbilisi and in other European capitals to coincide with the special EU summit in Brussels when it opens at 1100 GMT on Monday.
It was called by France, which currently chairs the EU and brokered a peace deal between Russia and Georgia.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told the BBC that Paris did not support sanctions but the views of all EU members would have to be taken into account.
"The situation is very difficult and... we must be firm on our position in offering a line defending, of course, territorial integrity of Georgia," he said.
Mr Brown said both the EU and Nato should review their ties with Russia
"When Russia has a grievance over an issue such as South Ossetia, it should act multilaterally by consent rather than unilaterally by force," he said.
"My message to Russia is simple: If you want to be welcome at the top table of organisations such as the G8, OECD and WTO, you must accept that with rights come responsibilities."
Germany's foreign minister said that "the dangerous spiral of violence [over Georgia] must be stopped".
"We need a strong and sensible European role to allow a return to reason and responsibility," he said.
Speaking earlier in the week, Mr Steinmeier rejected the idea of sanctions, saying "someone should first tell me what a sanction against Russia could be".
"Particularly in such a serious political situation, it is necessary to show a bit of common sense," he said.
"We will continue to have Russia as our neighbour also beyond the current day, and it is in our own interest to return to a normal relationship."
(BBC)
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