The Best Cyprus Community

Skip to content


Putin suggests U.S. role in Georgia clash

Everything related to politics in Cyprus and the rest of the world.

Putin suggests U.S. role in Georgia clash

Postby boomerang » Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:29 pm

Putin suggests U.S. role in Georgia clash

By Clifford J. Levy
Published: August 29, 2008

MOSCOW: As Russia struggled to rally international support for its military action in Georgia, Vladimir Putin, the country's paramount leader, lashed out at the United States on Thursday, contending that the White House may have orchestrated the conflict to benefit one of the candidates in the American presidential election.

Putin's comments in a television interview, his most extensive to date on Russia's decision to send troops into Georgia earlier this month, sought to present the military operation as a response to brazen, cold war-style provocations by the United States. In tones that seemed alternately angry and mischievous, he suggested that the Bush administration may have tried to create a crisis that would influence American voters in the choice of a successor to President George W. Bush.

"The suspicion would arise that someone in the United States created this conflict on purpose to stir up the situation and to create an advantage for one of the candidates in the competitive race for the presidency in the United States," Putin said in an interview with CNN.

He added, "They needed a small victorious war."

Putin did not specify which candidate he had in mind, but there was no doubt that he was referring to Senator John McCain, the Republican. McCain is loathed in the Kremlin because he has a close relationship with Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and has called for imposing stiff penalties on Russia, including throwing it out of the Group of 8 industrialized nations.

Putin suggests U.S. role in Georgia clashRussia deal may fall, a casualty of conflictIn Europe, driving is a hard habit to break, even with gas at $10 a gallon
Putin offered scant evidence to support his assertion, and the White House called his comments absurd. But they underscored the depth of the rift between Moscow and Washington over the Georgia crisis, which flared three weeks ago when the Georgian military tried to reclaim a breakaway enclave allied with Russia. They also suggested that the Russian leader was deeply concerned about the possibility that McCain, widely viewed here as having a strong bias against Russia, could become president.

Only last spring, Putin, the president at the time, held a summit meeting with Bush in which the two expressed personal affection for each other and sought to smooth over tensions in the bilateral relationship.

Russia has been struggling to persuade the outside world to back its action in Georgia. On Thursday, China and four other countries meeting with Russia for the annual summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security alliance, declined to back Russia's military action in a joint communiqué.

Putin's interview came after his protégé, President Dmitri Medvedev, spoke to several foreign news outlets this week as part of a concerted move by the Kremlin to counter Georgia's public relations offensive in the international media. Medvedev's tone was less harsh, though he also criticized the West.

On Thursday, Putin, now prime minister, also said Russian defense officials believed that United States citizens were in the conflict area supporting the Georgian military when it attacked the separatist region of South Ossetia.

"Even during the cold war, during the time of tough confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, we have always avoided direct clashes between our civilians, let alone our servicemen," Putin said. "We have serious reasons to believe that directly, in the combat zone, citizens of the United States were present."

"If the facts are confirmed," he added, "that United States citizens were present in the combat zone, that means only one thing — that they could be there only on the direct instruction of their leadership. And if this is so, then it means that American citizens are in the combat zone, performing their duties, and they can only do that following a direct order from their leader, and not on their own initiative."

In Washington, the White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, dismissed Putin's remarks. "To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a political candidate just sounds not rational," she said.

She added, "It also sounds like his defense officials who said they believe this to be true are giving him really bad advice."

A senior Russian defense official, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday that Russian forces had found a United States passport in a ruined building near Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. The position, he said, had been occupied by Georgian Interior Ministry forces.

"What was the gentleman's purpose of being among the special forces and what he is doing today, I so far cannot answer," Nogovitsyn said, holding up what he said was a color copy of the passport. He said members of the Georgian unit had been killed, and the building destroyed.

When the war broke out, the United States had about 130 military trainers in Georgia preparing Georgian troops for service in Iraq. The American Embassy in Tbilisi said these trainers were not involved in the fighting; about 100 remain and are assisting with the delivery of aid to Georgia that is arriving on military planes and ships.

Nogovitsyn said the passport was in the name of Michael Lee White of Texas, but gave no information on whether Russians believed that he was a member of the United States military. The United States Embassy in Georgia told The Associated Press that it had no information on the matter.

Putin said in the CNN interview that Russia had thought that the United States would prevent Georgia from attacking South Ossetia, but suggested that he now believed that the Bush administration encouraged Saakashvili to send in his military.

"The American side in fact armed and trained the Georgian Army," Putin said. "Why hold years of difficult talks and seek complex compromise solutions in interethnic conflicts? It's easier to arm one of the sides and push it into the murder of the other side, and it's over. It seemed like an easy solution. The thing is, it turns out that it's not always so."

The Georgia conflict has become a flashpoint in the United States presidential campaign, with Senator McCain assailing what he refers to as "revanchist Russia" and asserting that he is far more qualified to handle such a crisis than the Democratic candidate, Senator Barack Obama.

McCain has long been friendly with Saakashvili, who has said he talks to McCain regularly. McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, has worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the Georgian government, and McCain's wife, Cindy, traveled to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, this week on a humanitarian aid mission.

All these ties, combined with McCain's criticism of Russia, have earned him a kind of notoriety in Moscow. When Parliament passed a resolution this week urging that Russia recognize the independence of the two breakaway enclaves, some lawmakers not only praised the courage of the South Ossetians, but also threw a few barbs at McCain.

Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/29/europe/29putin.php



I reckon he hit the nail on the head....how else shakikavli attacked without permision...just to get the moron McCain elected...dirty bastards...

Bloody yanks...after the multimedia demonstration on Iraq and WMD, which amounted to sweet fuck all they dishing it out on Russia...

How can anyone take them seriously ffs...
User avatar
boomerang
Main Contributor
Main Contributor
 
Posts: 7337
Joined: Sat May 14, 2005 5:56 am

Postby Kikapu » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:08 pm

If what Putin says is true and he has made it public, it will only damage McCain from now on, because reporters will dig to find any connections to Georgia and McCain, and the more McCain denies it, the more he will be exposed later on. So good on Putin to spill the beans right now as suppose to sit on the information. Personally I believe him, because the US was very quick to state that supposedly privately they told Georgia not to do anything foolish in South Ossetia, and withing few days, they did it anyway. But this did not stop the US from supporting that idiot Saakashvili. You would think the US would put him into the "dog house", but NO, they now treat him like a victim and when this idiot is on the TV, he acts like a victim.

I think the NeoCons wanted to start something small in Georgia to give McCain some "commander in chief" stature by making some tough statements right after it happened, as if he knew what was going to happen before it actually did. I guess he must have known what was going to happen, just as Bush knew about 9/11 hijackings and let it happen anyway. The mistake Bush made, was that he had no idea that these hijacking were on a "suicide mission" to Twin Towers, Pentagon, and the White House or Congress. He thought it was going to be "just an another hijacking" which is what Condoleeza Rice said right after the attacks. These sleezeball NeoCons are predictable and will do anything for a political gain. It will not work however, and Georgia will pay the price for playing along with them.
User avatar
Kikapu
Leading Contributor
Leading Contributor
 
Posts: 17962
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:18 pm

Postby Oracle » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:17 pm

Kikapu wrote:If what Putin says is true and he has made it public, it will only damage McCain from now on, because reporters will dig to find any connections to Georgia and McCain, and the more McCain denies it, the more he will be exposed later on. So good on Putin to spill the beans right now as suppose to sit on the information. Personally I believe him, because the US was very quick to state that supposedly privately they told Georgia not to do anything foolish in South Ossetia, and withing few days, they did it anyway. But this did not stop the US from supporting that idiot Saakashvili. You would think the US would put him into the "dog house", but NO, they now treat him like a victim and when this idiot is on the TV, he acts like a victim.

I think the NeoCons wanted to start something small in Georgia to give McCain some "commander in chief" stature by making some tough statements right after it happened, as if he knew what was going to happen before it actually did. I guess he must have known what was going to happen, just as Bush knew about 9/11 hijackings and let it happen anyway. The mistake Bush made, was that he had no idea that these hijacking were on a "suicide mission" to Twin Towers, Pentagon, and the White House or Congress. He thought it was going to be "just an another hijacking" which is what Condoleeza Rice said right after the attacks. These sleezeball NeoCons are predictable and will do anything for a political gain. It will not work however, and Georgia will pay the price for playing along with them.


:shock: WOW!

There's no pulling the wool over your eyes with this Georgiagate, Kiks :lol:
User avatar
Oracle
Leading Contributor
Leading Contributor
 
Posts: 23507
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:13 am
Location: Anywhere but...

Postby pantheman » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:21 pm

Kikapu wrote:If what Putin says is true and he has made it public, it will only damage McCain from now on, because reporters will dig to find any connections to Georgia and McCain, and the more McCain denies it, the more he will be exposed later on. So good on Putin to spill the beans right now as suppose to sit on the information. Personally I believe him, because the US was very quick to state that supposedly privately they told Georgia not to do anything foolish in South Ossetia, and withing few days, they did it anyway. But this did not stop the US from supporting that idiot Saakashvili. You would think the US would put him into the "dog house", but NO, they now treat him like a victim and when this idiot is on the TV, he acts like a victim.

I think the NeoCons wanted to start something small in Georgia to give McCain some "commander in chief" stature by making some tough statements right after it happened, as if he knew what was going to happen before it actually did. I guess he must have known what was going to happen, just as Bush knew about 9/11 hijackings and let it happen anyway. The mistake Bush made, was that he had no idea that these hijacking were on a "suicide mission" to Twin Towers, Pentagon, and the White House or Congress. He thought it was going to be "just an another hijacking" which is what Condoleeza Rice said right after the attacks. These sleezeball NeoCons are predictable and will do anything for a political gain. It will not work however, and Georgia will pay the price for playing along with them.


I fear that if we are not careful, this shit stirring has the capacity to turn nasty for all of us, and we will all be paying the price. God help us all!
User avatar
pantheman
Regular Contributor
Regular Contributor
 
Posts: 1553
Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2005 1:21 pm

Postby miltiades » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:28 pm

American finger in action again !!!!!
User avatar
miltiades
Leading Contributor
Leading Contributor
 
Posts: 19837
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:01 pm

Postby Oracle » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:30 pm

Nothing to sit on now, Milty :lol:
User avatar
Oracle
Leading Contributor
Leading Contributor
 
Posts: 23507
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:13 am
Location: Anywhere but...

Postby Kikapu » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:05 pm

Oracle wrote:
Kikapu wrote:If what Putin says is true and he has made it public, it will only damage McCain from now on, because reporters will dig to find any connections to Georgia and McCain, and the more McCain denies it, the more he will be exposed later on. So good on Putin to spill the beans right now as suppose to sit on the information. Personally I believe him, because the US was very quick to state that supposedly privately they told Georgia not to do anything foolish in South Ossetia, and withing few days, they did it anyway. But this did not stop the US from supporting that idiot Saakashvili. You would think the US would put him into the "dog house", but NO, they now treat him like a victim and when this idiot is on the TV, he acts like a victim.

I think the NeoCons wanted to start something small in Georgia to give McCain some "commander in chief" stature by making some tough statements right after it happened, as if he knew what was going to happen before it actually did. I guess he must have known what was going to happen, just as Bush knew about 9/11 hijackings and let it happen anyway. The mistake Bush made, was that he had no idea that these hijacking were on a "suicide mission" to Twin Towers, Pentagon, and the White House or Congress. He thought it was going to be "just an another hijacking" which is what Condoleeza Rice said right after the attacks. These sleezeball NeoCons are predictable and will do anything for a political gain. It will not work however, and Georgia will pay the price for playing along with them.


:shock: WOW!

There's no pulling the wool over your eyes with this Georgiagate, Kiks :lol:


This is where it is appropriate to say this,

"If You Can't Fuck a Friend, Who Can You Fuck".!!

Georgia has just found out what are "friends" for.!!
User avatar
Kikapu
Leading Contributor
Leading Contributor
 
Posts: 17962
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:18 pm

Postby Nikitas » Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:54 pm

Mikhail Saakasvili should have read about the Greek dictator Ioannides. Maybe Saak can tell us what Ioannides meant when the talked on the phone and then shouted "the bastards have double crossed me", this was on August 14 1974. Times are not changing much.
Nikitas
Main Contributor
Main Contributor
 
Posts: 7420
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:49 pm


Return to Politics and Elections

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests