MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's envoy to NATO warned Tuesday against putting Georgia on track to join the alliance, saying that would deepen the divides within that former Soviet republic and bolster two separatist regions' bids for international recognition.

The warning by Dmitry Rogozin, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, appeared to be part of a Russian effort to head off further expansion by NATO, which is expected to consider next month offering Georgia an official route to alliance membership.
Rogozin said a membership offer would push Russia and others to recognize the independence claims of separatists in Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia region. Moscow already said Western recognition of Kosovo's secession from Serbia set a precedent for those areas.
""Russia is trying to persuade the NATO members, first of all the Americans, that they shouldn't joke around — not just with Georgia but with the whole perspective for the future of NATO,"" Rogozin said. ""The question is whether they hear us or not.""
Russia has opposed NATO's eastward expansion and seems particularly concerned about the prospect of membership for Ukraine and Georgia, two former Soviet republics whose leaders have annoyed Moscow by turning toward the West.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has built strong ties with the United States and sought NATO membership for Georgia as part of a drive to lessen Russia's influence on the Caucasus Mountain nation, located on a chief westward route for Caspian Sea oil and gas.
Saakashvili has vowed to restore government control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But Rogozin argued that by conducting a referendum on NATO membership in January without including the breakaway regions, Saakashvili's government was suggesting Georgia would join NATO without them.