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Putin spurns US; Tbilisi vows to keep rebel regions; China, Central Asia support Russian role
Friday, August 29, 2008
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/TBILISI: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the United States of manufacturing the conflict in Georgia to favour a candidate in the US presidential race. The White House swiftly denounced the charge as “patently false.”
In an interview with CNN television, Putin said “if my guess is right, then it raises the suspicion that someone in the US 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.”
In addition to those remarks shown on Russian television, Putin charged in another part of the CNN interview shown in the United States that Americans on the ground in Georgia were “implementing orders” from their “leader” during the conflict.
“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,” Putin told the network.
“Therefore, they were acting in implementing those orders, doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader,” Putin added. The accusation illicited a sharp reaction from the White House.
“To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a political candidate—it sounds not rational,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Meanwhile, Russia on Thursday tested an inter-continental missile, heightening tensions with the West as France said the European Union could impose sanctions on Moscow over the Georgia conflict. Russia also sought international support at a summit with China and Central Asian nations.
The missile test in northern Russia came barely a week after the United States completed an accord with Poland on basing an anti-missile shield in central Europe and as Russia accuses Nato of building up its navy vessels in the Black Sea.
A spokesman for Russia’s strategic nuclear forces said the 6,000 kilometre test of the Topol RS-12M was successful, news agencies reported. Russia has been developing the missile in response to US plans to develop a missile-defence shield.
The stand-off with the West has deepened since President Dmitry Medvedev’s announcement that Russia recognised South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, as independent states.
EU states are considering imposing sanctions on Russia at an emergency summit on the Georgian crisis on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. “Sanctions are being considered, and many other means,” said Kouchner, whose country holds the European Union presidency.
“We are trying to draw up a strong text showing our desire not to accept” events in Georgia, Kouchner said, adding that France was not among the EU countries proposing sanctions.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shrugged off the threat, saying it was made “just because they’re upset that the ‘little pet’ of certain Western capitals didn’t fulfil their expectations.”
Russia claimed it had secured support from China and four other nations at a summit in Dushanbe, the Tajikistan capital.
A statement released by the six nations at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit voiced support for Russia’s “active role” in “assisting in peace and cooperation in the region” but also called for dialogue and respect for “territorial integrity.”
“The SCO member states express their deep concern over the recent tensions surrounding the South Ossetia question and call for the sides to peacefully resolve existing problems through dialogue,” said the statement signed by Medvedev, President Hu Jintao of China and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The declaration called for respect for “territorial integrity” without specifically naming the Georgia case.
Medvedev described the “united position” of the SCO members as a “serious signal” to the West. “I am sure that the united position of the SCO member states will have international resonance,” Medvedev said. In a related development, Georgians on Thursday vowed never to give up two breakaway regions and urged the world to punish Russia for recognising them, as burials began for dozens of soldiers killed in fighting over South Ossetia.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
