U.S. stoked Georgia war: Putin

MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin opened a new front in the diplomatic row over Georgia, directly accusing the United States of orchestrating the conflict in the Caucasus as an election ploy to help one of the candidates vying for the White House.

In an interview with CNN, the former Russian president suggested that unnamed people in the United States stoked the conflict in the Caucasus to create a crisis, but did not name the candidate who stood to gain.

“If my guess is right, then it raises the suspicion that someone in the U.S. specially created this conflict to worsen the situation and create an advantage in the competitive struggle for one of the candidates for the post of president of the United States,” said Mr. Putin, who still wields considerable power in Russia.

“They needed a short, victorious war. And if it didn't work out, they could always put the blame on us, make us look like the enemy and against the background of this surge of patriotism, once more rally the country around a particular political force,” he said.

The accusation of U.S. involvement, a first from Russia, drew a swift rebuke from Washington. U.S. President George W. Bush's chief spokeswoman Dana Perino called the accusation “patently false, suggesting Mr. Putin was getting bad advice.

The crisis in Georgia flared earlier this month when Georgian forces tried to reclaim the rebel republic of South Ossetia with a military offensive on the capital of Tskhinvali. Russia launched an overwhelming counter-attack, routing the Georgian army and pushing deep into Georgia proper.

The brief, but bloody conflict was halted by a French-brokered ceasefire, but Russia forces still occupy some parts of Georgia.

On Tuesday, tensions flared anew when Moscow announced it was formally recognizing South Ossetia and another breakaway republic, Abhkazia, as independent states.

Georgia claimed Moscow's bid was aimed at eventually annexing the regions. European leaders and the United States also condemned the move.

Moscow claims its incursion into Georgia was aimed at saving Russian lives in the republic and accused Georgia of genocide in the region.

In the interview, Mr. Putin also accused the U.S. of meddling in the war inside Georgia.

“U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict,” Mr. Putin said. “They were acting in implementing … orders, doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader.”

Mr. Putin wasn't the only Russian leader to claim the U.S. had a presence on the ground in Georgia.

Thursday, Russia's deputy chief of the General Staff, Col. General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said Moscow's forces had retrieved from a battlefield in Georgia a U.S. national's passport.

At a Moscow news conference, Col. General Nogovitsyn showed an enlarged, colour photocopy of the document, in the name of a Michael Lee White, born in 1967. The passport, issued in the Texas city of Houston, bore a current visa from Kazakhstan. U.S. citizens do not require a visa for Georgia.

The United States has denied any involvement in the conflict although it is a staunch ally of Georgia. It says U.S. military advisers were in the country training the Georgian army for its role in Iraq.

Mr. Putin made the comments just hours after Russia failed to shore up support for its Georgian incursion among Central Asian states and China.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev travelled to Tajikistan with the hopes of persuading members of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization to back Russia.

But the six members of the regional security group – which includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan – demurred, urging the countries to solve their problems peacefully.

Meanwhile, Washington has ordered up to $5.75-million (U.S.) in aid to help war victims in Georgia.

Amid the rising rhetoric, Ms. Perino attempted to quell suggestions that relations between Russia and the West are deteriorating.

“I don't think anyone should be looking for a new Cold War,” she said. “What we would like to see is the return to the status quo before Aug. 7th and the hostilities began; before Russia invaded Georgia; before the disproportional response to the regular flare-ups that happen in the summertime out in that area.

“What we would like to see is a return to a place where we can have integration of Russia into the international community. Unfortunately, it's Russia that made the choice to take several steps backward in that regard,” she said.”