PUTIN ACCUSES U.S. IN GEORGIA

August 28th, 2008
Putin accuses U.S. in Georgia
Posted: 11:47 AM ET
SOCHI, Russia (CNN) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, insisting that his country was not responsible for the conflict with Georgia, Thursday accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict for political purposes.
In an exclusive interview with CNN in the Black Sea city of Sochi, Putin said his defense officials had given him serious reason to believe that U.S. citizens had been engaged in combat with Russian forces in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
The Russian premier said this implied the conflict was a Washington operation — one aimed at providing a U.S. presidential candidate with a talking point intended to distract Americans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the struggling U.S. economy.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino blasted Putin’s statements, saying, “To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a political candidate just sounds not rational.”–From CNN’s Matthew Chance