Putin Asserts Link Between U.S. Election and Georgia War

Saakashvili said that American military training provided to Georgia's army in recent years had focused on peacekeeping and counterinsurgency warfare.

Fewer than 100 U.S. military advisers were said to have been stationed in Georgia before the war began, and they have kept a low profile since Russian tanks and bombers routed Georgian forces in a five-day campaign that left them in control of about a third of Georgian territory.

Putin said that if U.S. citizens were present in the combat zone, they would have been "performing official duties, and they may only do this on orders from their supervisors, not at their own initiative."

"If my conjecture is confirmed, then it raises the suspicion that someone in the United States deliberately created this conflict in order to worsen the situation and create an advantage . . . for one of the candidates for the post of president of the United States," he said. "And if this is a fact, it is nothing other than the use of so-called administrative resources in a domestic political struggle, and in the worst, bloodiest form as well."

When the CNN correspondent, Matthew Chance, expressed skepticism, Putin argued that the Bush administration faced difficulties in the Middle East and Afghanistan, as well as economic difficulties.

"A small, victorious war is needed," Putin said. "And if you don't succeed, it's possible to shift the blame on us, turn us into the enemy against the backdrop of rah-rah patriotism to rally the country again around certain political forces. I am surprised that you are surprised at what I say. It's obvious."

Putin did not specify which U.S. presidential candidate he believed the Georgian crisis was intended to help, but the official RIA-Novosti news agency quoted experts as saying it had boosted the campaign of the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Asked whether the war had strained his personal relationship with President Bush, Putin replied: "Of course, it undermined our relationship, the relationship between the nations above all."

Putin said he told Bush in a conversation at the Olympic Games in Beijing that Georgia had attacked South Ossetia and that the Russian government had been unable to contact the Georgian leadership. "George responded to me -- I have already talked about this publicly -- that no one wants war," Putin said. "We had hoped that the U.S. administration would intervene in the conflict and stop the aggressive actions of the Georgian leadership. None of this happened." As a result, he said, Russia was forced to respond militarily. "We are a peace-loving nation . . . but if someone believes they can come to kill us, using our own land as a cemetery, then these people should reflect on the implications of such policies."

At the United Nations, the United States and European governments condemned Russia in a public meeting of the Security Council, saying its recognition of Georgia's breakaway provinces had undermined efforts to reach an agreement on a U.N. resolution endorsing a cease-fire. The United States and France called for the establishment of a U.N. fact-finding mission to probe reports of human rights abuses during the conflict. They also pressed Russia to complete its withdrawal from Georgian territory and to provide access for humanitarian aid workers in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Finer reported from Tbilisi, Georgia. Staff writer Colum Lynch at the United Nations contributed to this report.