US may be behind Georgia conflict: Putin

The Cold War-style barbs, hurled at long range from the two capitals and face to face at the United Nations, underscored the breakdown of diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s 3-week-old military intervention in the former Soviet republic.

Russia faced international isolation two days after it recognised the independence of a pair of breakaway Georgian regions at the centre of the conflict. It won no support for the move at meetings of the UN Security Council and an Asian alliance that comprises Russia, China and four Central Asian nations. But neither has the Security Council taken any action against Russia, holding six emergency sessions.

In an interview on Thursday with CNN, Putin suggested that the United States had encouraged Georgia’s offensive and that there perhaps had been an American presence in the combat.

Putin told CNN: “If that is confirmed, it’s very bad. It’s very dangerous.”

He said he had suspected a link to American domestic politics: “If my guesses are confirmed, then that raises the suspicion that somebody in the United States purposefully created this conflict with the aim of aggravating the situation and creating an advantage . . . for one of the candidates in the battle for the post of US president.” Putin did not say which party or candidate. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Putin’s contentions were “patently false” and “not rational.”