Putin blames US for Georgia role

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/7586605.stm

Published: 2008/08/28 16:30:06 GMT


Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the US of provoking the
conflict in Georgia, possibly for domestic election purposes.

Mr Putin told CNN US citizens were "in the area" during the conflict over
South Ossetia and were "taking direct orders from their leaders".

He said his defence officials had told him the provocation was to benefit
one of the US presidential candidates.

The White House dismissed the allegations as "not rational".

Georgia tried to retake the Russian-backed separatist region of South
Ossetia this month by force after a series of clashes.

Russian forces subsequently launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended
with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and another
rebel region, Abkhazia, and an EU-brokered ceasefire.

Diplomatic wrangling

Mr Putin said in the interview: "The fact is that US citizens were indeed in
the area in conflict during the hostilities.

"It should be admitted that they would do so only following direct orders
from their leaders."

Mr Putin added: "The American side in effect armed and trained the Georgian
army.

"Why... seek a difficult compromise solution in the peacekeeping process? It
is easier to arm one of the sides and provoke it into killing another side.
And the job is done.

"The suspicion arises that someone in the United States especially created
this conflict with the aim of making the situation more tense and creating
a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of
US president."

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View the interview:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/08/28/chance.russia.putin.intv.preview.cnn?iref=mpvideosview
http://tinyurl.com/n958l

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