Vladimir Putin: ''Seems like somebody in the US had staged the conflict''
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Aug 28, 2008, gave an interview to CNN on the crisis in the Caucasus and Russia-US relations in the context. Putin said he did not rule out that the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict could had been staged by some forces in the US to give a boost for one of the US presidential contenders.
Moreover, Putin said, Russia has serious grounds to think that US citizens had participated in combat in South Ossetia. ''We have serious grounds to suppose that there were citizens of the United States right in the middle of the combat action. If this is correct, and if this is proved, it would be very bad. It is very dangerous, and this is an erroneous policy,'' Putin emphasized.
On Aug 28, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Anatoly Nogovitsyn informed journalists of a US citizen's ID found at a site near Tkhinval where combat with a Georgian special force took place. ''We looked for the passport's owner but have not found him. We know that he is from Texas,'' the general said, showing the media the passport's Xeros copy. US State Department spokesman Robert Wood commented on the issue that US authorities had no information on whether US citizens had been present in the conflict zone in South Ossetia. Wood uttered that he had no way of knowing about it.
Vladimir Putin said on CNN air that, ''even in the times of the 'cold war,' in the times of rough confrontation between the USSR and the US, we have always avoided direct clashes between our civilians and especially the military.'' The Prime Minister said that the Russian side hoped that ''the US administration would interfere in the conflict and stop the aggression of the Georgian leadership,'' but ''nothing of the kind happened.''
According to Putin, ''suspicions arise that somebody in the US specially staged the conflict in order to aggravate the situation and create advantages for one of the candidates in the competition for the US presidency.'' ''The events might also have an internal US dimension,'' he emphasized.
In fact, starting from the onset of the war in South Ossetia, the Republican US presidential contender John McCain has received a lot of extra points while using the situation in his electoral rhetorics. He would voice vehement critique of Russia, using ''cold war'' cliches. ''They better not mold an enemy image in order to scare by it their own populace and trying under this pretext to rally allies around their political cause.''
Commenting on the possibility of excluding Russia from the G8, openly discussed by US politicians, Vladimir Putin stated that the step would question effectiveness of G8 activities in such fields as countering terrorism, drug trade, infectious diseases and proliferation. ''They better not scare us, we are not frightened at all. They better just be able to realsitically analyze the situation, to look in the future and establish normal relations, respecting each other's interests,'' the Russian government's head emphasized. Speaking of the G8 effectiveness in general, Putin stated: ''Without inviting the Chinese People's Republic and India, the G8 in its today's form is no longer adequate.''
Vladimir Putin confirmed: Russia does not reject equal partnership with the west. ''We want to live in peace and accord. We want to have a normal trade, to cooperate in all directions: maintaining international security, disarmament, countering terrorism, narcotrafficking, on the Iranian nuclear problem, the North Korean one that has recently developed a trend to some aggravation. We are ready to such work, but the cooperation has to be honest, open, partner-like, not an egocentric one,'' the Russian Prime Minister stressed.
13:02 08/29/2008
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