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MOSCOW -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested in a CNN interview Thursday that the United States pushed Georgia toward war and said he suspects a connection to the American presidential campaign, the network said.
Russian news agencies said Putin told CNN that the U.S. seemingly encouraged Georgia's leadership to use force to resolve its dispute with separatist South Ossetia.
"The American side in fact armed and trained the Georgian army," ITAR-Tass quoted Putin as saying in the interview. "Why hold years of difficult talks and seek complex compromise solutions in interethnic conflicts? It's easier to arm one side and push it into the murder of the other side, and it's over."
According to ITAR-Tass, he also said: "If my guesses are confirmed, then the suspicion is raised that somebody in the United States 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 U.S. president."
CNN said he provided no evidence, and he apparently did not name a party or candidate.
According to CNN, Putin said Russian defense officials told him the war was linked to the U.S. election.
White House press secretary Dana Perino rejected Putin's contentions.
"I think that those claims, first and foremost, are patently false. But it also sounds like his defense officials who said they believe this to be true are giving him really bad advice."
She added: "To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a political candidate just sounds not rational."
Perino said Russia is facing the consequences of a diminished world reputation and that "there will be other" consequences as well. She refused to say what those consequences will be and said there is no timetable.
Moscow accuses Georgia of provoking Russia's offensive in the ex-Soviet republic by launching an assault targeting South Ossetia on Aug. 7. The United States has close ties with the Georgian government and has trained Georgian units, including for service in Iraq.
Putin also lent his voice to Russian suggestions that Americans may have fought alongside Georgians, though he did not make that claim directly.
"U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict," Putin said, according to CNN. "They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader."
The deputy chief of Russia's general staff, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said Thursday that a U.S. passport was found in a basement in a village in South Ossetia among items that he said belonged to Georgian forces.
"We found a passport for Michael Lee White" Nogovitsyn said. "He's a Texan."
The U.S. Embassy in Georgia said it had no information on the matter.
Putin rejected Western contentions that Russia should have shown more restraint. The U.S. and other nations accuse Russia of using disproportionate force in its response. Russian troops and tanks moved deep into Georgia and bombed at least one Georgian city.
"What, we're supposed to let ourselves be killed and for that they will, say, leave us in the G-8? And who will remain in the G-8 when we're all killed?" he said. Some politicians in the West have urged the ejection of Russia from the Group of Eight nations over the Georgia crisis.
Some hawkish pro-Kremlin politicians have claimed U.S. Republicans could have provoked the war to keep Democratic candidate Barack Obama out of the White House by fomenting concern among U.S. voters over security, an area in which they say Americans trust Republican John McCain more.
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