US rejects 'false' Russia claim
Mr Putin believes US citizens were in the area of conflict
The US has dismissed as "patently false" accusations by Russia that it
helped provoke the conflict in Georgia for domestic political reasons.
The White House said Russia would face consequences for its continuing
military presence in Georgia.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told CNN that US citizens had been
in the conflict zone of South Ossetia.
He said his defence officials had told him the provocation was to
benefit one of the US presidential candidates.
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 US television network 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."
Those claims first and foremost are patently false, but it also
sounds like his defence officials who said they believed this to be true
are giving him really bad advice
Dana Perino,
White House spokeswoman
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," he said.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino rejected the allegation.
"To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a
political candidate - it sounds not rational," she said.
"Those claims first and foremost are patently false, but it also sounds
like his defence officials who said they believed this to be true are
giving him really bad advice."
SOUTH OSSETIA & ABKHAZIA
South Ossetia
Population: About 70,000 (before recent conflict)
Capital: Tskhinvali
President: Eduard Kokoity
Abkhazia
Population: About 250,000 (2003)
Capital: Sukhumi
President: Sergei Bagapsh
Diplomatic wrangling over Russia's actions in Georgia continued on
Thursday with the Georgian parliament urging its government to cut
diplomatic ties with Moscow.
Earlier, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner suggested some EU
countries were considering sanctions against Russia.
Mr Kouchner insisted France had made no proposals for sanctions itself
but, as current president of the EU, would aim to get consensus among
all 27 countries of the bloc if sanctions were envisaged.
France has called an emergency EU summit on Monday to reassess relations
with Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described talk of sanctions as
the working of "a sick imagination" .
Such talk was an emotional response that demonstrated Western confusion
over the situation, he said.
The US has said it is now considering scrapping a US-Russia civilian
nuclear co-operation pact in response to the conflict.
The White House has also announced that up to $5.75m (£3.1m) will be
freed to help Georgia meet "unexpected and urgent refugee and migration
needs".
'Specious'
Late on Thursday, the UN held an open meeting to discuss the situation
in Georgia but it descended into an angry exchange.
Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, launched a scathing attack
on some council members.
He questioned their criticism of the use of force, asking the US
representative: "Did you find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?"
He compared council members' defence of the territorial integrity of
states with what he said was a failure to do so for Serbia over Kosovo.
US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said such "specious comparisons
cannot detract from the facts before us".
He said Russia had invaded Georgia and was "dismembering" Georgia.
Irakli Alasania, Georgia's ambassador to the UN, said Russia's actions
were "all pre-planned" .
He called for swift humanitarian aid and a UN presence in upper
Abkhazia.
Requests for representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to
participate in the formal council meeting were rejected.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/pr/fr/ -/1/hi/world/ europe/7587342. stm
Published: 2008/08/29 06:02:21 GMT
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