Putin accuses US over Georgia

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has suggested that the Caucasus crisis was started by "someone in the US" in order to "create a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of US president". Meanwhile, Russia is increasingly isolated as even its key allies refuse to support its actions in Georgia.

Mr Putin, who was speaking to CNN, is seen as the driving force behind the Russian action in Georgia. Russia's president, and Putin's protege, Dmitry Medvedev, went to Tajikistan yesterday to try to raise support during a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, set up by Putin seven years ago. But China and four ex-Soviet states rebuked Russian conduct by calling for respect for the territorial integrity of states and criticising the use of force to redraw borders.

After the G7 group of nations rebuked Moscow on Wednesday, a summit of EU leaders on Monday is to consider imposing sanctions on Russia, suggested by Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign meeting. The emergency summit will be the first since the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.

Yesterday, Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, delivered the strongest criticism of Russia by a European minister for years in a speech in Kiev, capital of Ukraine. Mr Miliband, tipped as a potential future Prime Minister, decried Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to recognised the break-away regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as a "unilateral attempt to redraw the map" which "marks a moment of real significance".

Mr Miliband said: "It is not just the end of the post cold war period of growing geopolitical calm in and around Europe. It is also the moment when countries are required to set out where they stand on the significant issues of nationhood and international law."