9 Aug 2008
Russia, U.S. blame each other for violence
Two days after the two countries pledged to work together for peace in Georgia, Russia and the United States are blaming each other for the violence that has erupted there.
This comes as Russia upped its bombing campaign of Georgia involving cities and towns outside of the conflict zone. American President George W. Bush has issued statements from Beijing demanding Russia halt its bombings of Georgia and pull its troops from South Ossetia.
The United States has long criticized Russia’s involvement in the the resolution of the Georgia’s two frozen conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, more or less suggesting Russia was chiding on separatists in the former Soviet republic.
At the same time, the United States has irked Russia by pushing to include Georgia into the NATO military alliance, and by both arming and training the Georgian military. Russia now sees that support as one of the factors that encouraged Georgia to make its surprise attempt to retake South Ossetia from separatist forces and Russian peacekeepers.
Now both are making statements blaming one another for the recent upsurge in violence according to the Washington Post.
Russia also laid much of the responsibility for ending the fighting on Washington, which has trained Georgian troops. Washington, in turned, blamed Russia.
But it’s not only the Russian government that sees American complicity in Georgia’s actions, about 30,000 Ossetians and Abkhazians protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow today calling Georgia an “American puppet.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also told BBC today that countries selling arms to Georgia are partially to blame. Israel last week was pressured to block arms sales to Georgia in the run-up to the crisis.