- guardian.co.uk,
- Thursday August 28 2008 18:09 BST
Russian president Vladimir Putin: amplified conspiracy theories surrounding Georgian crisis. Photograph: Vladimir Rodionov/EPA
The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, claimed today the Caucasus crisis was started by the Americans as an election campaign ploy.
As Russia found itself increasingly isolated internationally because of its invasion of Georgia and its decision to recognise two breakaway regions of Georgia as independent states, Putin suggested the Georgia war had been cooked up in Washington to create a neo-cold war climate that would strengthen John McCain's bid for the White House and wreck the prospects of Barack Obama.
Following yesterday's denunciation of Russian conduct by the G7 grouping of the big industrial democracies, Russia's key allies resisted Moscow's pressure today for support over Georgia.
At a summit in Tajikistan of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which Putin set up seven years ago as a foil to western power, China and four former Soviet central Asian states called for respect for the territorial integrity of states and criticised the use of force to redraw borders, effectively delivering a rebuke of Russian conduct.
President Dmitry Medvedev went to the meeting in Dushanbe, the Tajikistan capital, to try to drum up support for Russia's position, but the summit statement only served to highlight Russia's worsening isolation.
"Russia does not feel isolated and is not afraid to be isolated," said Yevgeniy Chizhov, the Russian ambassador in Brussels.
He warned the EU that it would come off worse than Russia if an emergency summit of EU leaders on Monday decided to impose sanctions, as suggested today by Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister.
The French are chairing the EU and have called Monday's summit, the first time such an emergency meeting has been staged since the lead-up to the war in Iraq in 2003.
"Certain countries have asked that sanctions be imposed," said Kouchner. "Sanctions are being considered and many other measures."
He said the aim on Monday was to demonstrate strongly that Europe did not accept what had happened in Georgia.
EU ambassadors are to meet in Brussels tomorrow to argue over how to respond to the Georgia crisis. Despite Kouchner's words, economic or trade sanctions are not likely to be imposed by the European leaders whose countries are highly dependent on Russian gas and oil supplies and whose big business has much at stake in Russia.
There is some pressure for diplomatic retaliation against Moscow and to call off scheduled negotiations on a new strategic pact between the EU and Russia. But the European Commission said the next Russia-EU negotiations were still scheduled for next month and Chizhov said he knew of no plan to cancel them.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, treated the talk of European sanctions with contempt. "That's a demonstration of complete confusion, the product of a sick mind."
Sanctions, said Chizhov, "will be to the detriment of the EU as much if not more than to Russia. I certainly hope reason and common sense will prevail".
Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the French minister for Europe, made plain that Paris did not want to sever channels of communication with Russia.
"The essential aim [of the summit], following the latest Russian declarations, is to show Europe's unity and capacity to act, balancing the need for dialogue and the need for firmness towards Russia," he told a meeting of diplomats and officials. "Needless to say, it won't be easy."
In an interview with CNN, Putin amplified conspiracy theories that have been aired in the Russian media and by Russian pundits since the crisis erupted three weeks ago - that the Georgian war was fabricated by the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, and the Republican presidential contender, John McCain, to create an international crisis and fan anti-Russian hostility that would undermine Obama's chances of getting to the Oval Office.
"The suspicion arises that someone in the United States especially created this conflict to make the situation more tense and create a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of US president," said Putin, who is seen as the main force behind Russia's hammering of Georgia.
