>U.S. may have staged Georgian conflict - Putin
>
>In an interview with CNN RussiaÂ’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the
>Georgian-South Ossetian conflict may have been staged to secure a victory
>for one of the presidential candidates in the U.S. He says preliminary
>reports show that U.S. citizens may have been present in the combat zone.
>
>“We have serious reasons to believe that American citizens were right at the
>heart of the military action. This would have implications for American
>domestic policy. If this is confirmed, we will have grounds to suspect that
>somebody in the U.S. has created this conflict to aggravate the situation
>and create a competitive advantage for one of the presidential candidates”.
>
>RussiaÂ’s Prime Minister also commented on the media coverage of the recent
>events.
>
>“As far as the perception of these events by the general public goes, it
>depends not only on politicians, but also on how artful they are in
>controlling the mass media. And our American colleagues do this much better
>than we do and there's a lot we can learn from them”.
>
>Putin stressed that Russia did not attack and cannot be portrayed as an
>aggressor.
>
>“We didn’t attack anyone, we were attacked and therefore we need guarantees
>that we wonÂ’t be attacked again, and that our citizens won't be killed. They
>are trying to present us as aggressors”.
>
>The Prime Minister has given a detailed chronology of the events between
>August 7 and 10.
>
>“On 7 August, at 14:42, the Georgian peacekeepers left the headquarters of
>the peacekeeping forces under the pretext that they'd received orders from
>their commanders to leave their posts, and they never returned.
>
>One hour later, heavy artillery shelling began.
>
>At 22:35 a massive bombardment of Tsklhinval started. At 22:50 the transfer
>of Georgian ground troops started to the combat area. At the same time
>Georgian field hospitals were set up.
>
>And at 23:30 the Brigadeer General commanding the Georgian peacekeeping
>forces announced that Georgia has declared a war against South Ossetia. They
>announced this publicly, looking straight into the TV cameras.
>
>At that point we tried to contact the Georgian leadership, but everyone
>refused to talk to us.
>
>At 12:45 AM on the 8th of August the Georgian commander repeated his
>statement. So who attacked whom?”
>
>The former Russian president reiterated that the country has ‘no intention
>of attacking anyone, or of fighting a war with anyoneÂ’.
>
>“For eight years while I was President I often heard one and the same
>question – what place does Russia think it should occupy in the world? We
>are a peace-loving state and want to co-operate with all our neighbours and
>other states. But if someone thinks they can just come in and kill us, and
>that our place is in the cemetery, these people should think of the
>consequences of such policies”.
>
>http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29626