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Russia 'ready to annex Georgia's rebel regions'
Paul Waugh, Evening Standard29 Aug 2008
America and Russia were locked in a fresh war of words today as it emerged that the Kremlin is plotting to "absorb" breakaway regions in the Caucasus into its territory.
The Moscow-backed governments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia signalled that they would become part of Russia proper.
The Kremlin infuriated the West this week by saying it would recognise the "independence" of the disputed provinces.
But South Ossetian parliamentary speaker Znaur Gassiyev went even further today and said that Russia would absorb the region within "several years".
Abkhazia's foreign minister Sergei Shamba said his province "may become part of the Union State of Russia and Belarus".
The claims are the latest in a game of political one-upmanship between Russia and America over the war in Georgia.
White House officials have angrily attacked claims by Vladimir Putin that Washington instigated the conflict.
The Russian prime minister told CNN that George Bush stoked tensions in the former Soviet republic to create an atmosphere of crisis and underline John McCain's hawkish credentials. Mr Putin also claimed Americans were involved in the war.
He said: "We have serious grounds to think there were US citizens in the combat zone. It raises the suspicion that somebody in America 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."
He even hinted that America had helped Georgian troops"murder" civilians in South Ossetia.
White House press secretary Dana Perino called Mr Putin's contentions "patently false" and "not rational".
Amid increased speculation of a titfortat round of economic sanctions, Mr Putin also said he was barring 19 American poultry producers from selling their products to Moscow.
Ms Perino responded that Russia is facing the consequences of a diminished global reputation and there will be other consequences.
US firms Boeing, Microsoft and General Electric are nervous their £10 billion-a-year trade with Russia may suffer.
Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, a close American ally, said the conflict had nothing to do with the US but "the aggression of the Russians" in a French TV interview today.
