Atlantic Council

From Reuters/Chicago Tribune: Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of encouraging Georgia to seek revenge against Moscow for a 2008 war, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised new U.S. military support for Tbilisi.

In a strongly worded statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the United States' support of Georgia's bid to join NATO, as well as "massive supplies of arms from abroad" encouraged Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's "criminal adventures" that led to the five-day war.

On Tuesday, Clinton pledged U.S. support for the training of pro-Western Georgia's military in coastal defense and underscored Washington's rejection of Russia's "occupation" of two separatist regions.

"Senior U.S. officials have once again made strong statements in support of Saakashvili, word for word repeating the false theses of his propaganda regarding the 'Russian occupation of Georgia,' thus fuelling the revanchist aspirations of Tbilisi," Lukashevich said in the statement.  (photo: Reuters)