World

US backs off from sensational claims of Georgia’s president

by Yuliya Talmazan | August 14, 2008 at 11:29 am

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OPINION--Mikhail Saakashvili just can’t stop now. He is so into his gambling game, he can’t play it safe anymore, tainting not only himself but his Western supporters as well. Today he made a sensational claim that US is readying to take over airports and ports in Georgia. These claims have been immediately denied by the US government, as they could have invoked a very angry response in Russia. Exactly a week into Georgia's attempt to regain South Ossetia resulting in military conflict with Russia, Saakashvile is pulling one publicity stunt after another.

Saakashvili said on Georgian national television that the U.S. arrival of a military cargo plane with humanitarian aid "means that Georgia's ports and airports will be taken under the control of the U.S. Defense Department."

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell responded, "We have no need, nor do we intend to take over any Georgian air or seaport to deliver humanitarian aid. ... We have no designs on taking control of any Georgian facility."

On Wednesday, he said in an interview on CNN that Russian troops were "closing on the capital, circling," and planning to install their own government in Tbilisi.

Associated Press reporters in the area saw no sign of an impending coup. An AP reporter saw dozens of Russian trucks and armored vehicles heading south from the central city of Gori in the direction of Tbilisi, but they later turned away.

In his Wednesday TV address, he said, "Russia has lost more airplanes than in any conflict of this scale since 1939." While such figures are not publicly available, the calculation seemed unlikely given how brief the fighting has been and how uneven the two countries' forces are.