US should improve relations with Russia: Putin
Moscow, Sep 13 (RIA Novosti) Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the US should improve relations with Russia marred by the Russian-Georgian conflict over South Ossetia last month.
“In conditions of global crises mutual interests prevail over some contradictions,” Putin told French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview published in its Saturday edition.
“I wait for the relations to improve. They (the US) marred them, and they should improve them,” the Russian leader said.
Putin also said that Russia and the US “always would turn out to be together” when global crises emerged, citing their cooperation during the two great wars of the 20th century.
“Here in Russia, we never forget it. We would also like our US partners to remember that too,” he added.
Putin said Moscow has evidence that American nationals were in the security zone during the recent Russia-Georgia conflict.
He said that “under previously signed international agreements, only three groups of people are allowed to the very security zone - locals, peacekeepers and European observers,” and Russia had documents testifying that the US nationals who were in the area did not belong to any of these groups.
“We would surely like to know what these people and other US nationals were doing in the zone,” the prime minister commented.
He also said that the Georgian army had been trained and equipped by the US.
“The fact that the Georgian army had been armed by our American partners is already indisputable, nobody even tries to challenge it,” he said.
Russia recognized the two Georgian breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia Aug 26, two weeks after it had concluded its operation “to force Georgia to peace,” saying the move was needed to protect the regions following Tbilisi’s Aug 8 offensive against South Ossetia.