NOVANEWS
MOSCOW — In an interview Friday that was timed to the third anniversary of Russia’s war with Georgia, President Dmitri A. Medvedev said top United States officials played a key role in events that touched off the war, and offered a withering assessment of a recent Senate resolution on Georgia’s behalf, which he said reflected “the personal tastes of certain elderly members of the Senate.”
They were the toughest remarks Mr. Medvedev has directed toward the United States in months, heightening the impression that the rapprochement between the two countries — the so-called reset — is beginning to unravel. Mr. Medvedev dismissed as “pure provocative nonsense” the notion that a Russian military intelligence officer was linked to an explosion outside the American Embassy in Tbilisi, a charge that was tentatively corroborated by a United States intelligence assessment that was described to reporters last week.
Georgia has always been the point of highest tension between the United States and Russia, even as they negotiated on such subjects as Iran’s weapons programs, the war in Afghanistan and nuclear nonproliferation. The tension has re-emerged this summer, as both countries head into an election season and with the question of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization appearing to dominate the agenda for the reset.
Mr. Medvedev cast doubt on that prospect in the interview, conducted at his resort home in Sochi and broadcast on state television. He said Russia would withdraw its application rather than accede to the current demands of Georgia, which, as a W.T.O. member, can block the entry of any new member. Georgia has asked for independent observers to be stationed at the borders between Russia and the enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia; Mr. Medvedev said Russia was willing to offer only electronic monitoring.
“Under the guise of W.T.O. accession, our colleagues in Georgia are trying to push through a new edition of the political problem,” Mr. Medvedev said. “We will not fall for it. W.T.O. accession is not too high a price to pay here.”
The 2008 war stripped Georgia of any control over the ethnic enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose separatist governments have long been supported by Russia. It began on Aug. 7, when, after an exchange of artillery fire, the Georgian military shelled the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. The Russian Army poured in, forcing Georgian troops to retreat. Since then, despite Western protests, Russia has remained deeply entrenched in both enclaves, which it has recognized as sovereign nations.
Mr. Medvedev devoted much of the interview to the decisions he made during the confrontation with Georgia, casting himself as a resolute leader who stood up to American pressure. As he waited for President Mikheil Saakashvili to engage in talks with Russia, “Georgia was getting more and more visits from ‘envoys from across the ocean,’ as the Soviets would have called them,” Mr. Medvedev said.
“The moment of truth for me, as I realized later while analyzing those events in hindsight over and over again, came with the visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,” he said. “Following that visit, my Georgian colleague simply dropped all communication with us. He simply stopped talking to us, he stopped writing letters and making phone calls. It was apparent that he had new plans now. And those plans were implemented later.”
Notably, Mr. Medvedev said that he decided to go to war with Georgia without consulting Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, and that the two did not even have a conversation until the following day.
In the interview, which was broadcast in Georgia as well, Mr. Medvedev missed no opportunity to denigrate Mr. Saakashvili, describing him as “a person I will never shake hands with” and “a difficult man to avoid, because he is gluey; if he wants to adhere to you, he will do a good job of it.” He said he would like to see the Georgian leader tried for war crimes, and at times seemed to be goading Mr. Saakashvili, who has expressed persistent anxiety about Russian attempts to undermine his government, both through military force or interference in domestic politics.
After saying it was up to Georgian voters to decide Mr. Saakashvili’s future at the polls, he added, “maybe they could also use other means, the way it sometimes happens in history.” He added that deposing Mr. Saakashvili three years ago would have been “a piece of cake,” but it “wasn’t on my agenda.”
“He should actually be thankful to me for halting our troops at some point,” Mr. Medvedev said. “If they had marched into Tbilisi, Georgia would most likely have a different president by now.”
A version of this article appeared in print on August 6, 2011, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Russian President Says U.S. Had Role in Georgian Conflict.
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