Putin Hits Out at West Over Georgia

Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, vigorously defended his country's use of force in South Ossetia yesterday and accused the US of trying to frighten Europe into taking anti-Russian positions. Using trademark blunt language, he described Georgia's attack on Russian forces in the breakaway region on August 7 as unexpected and unprovoked.

"What did you expect us to do? Should we have just wiped the bloody snot away and bowed our heads? Should we have waved our penknives in the air? Should we have used catapults against tanks?" he said. "If an aggressor comes into one's territory we would punch him in the face and one would be right to do so."

Putin was speaking to western journalists and academic experts on Russia for the first time since the Georgia crisis erupted last month.

He also took a tough line with Britain, expressing anger that it had given asylum to Akhmed Zakayev, a leader of the movement for Chechen independence. "Why do you allow Great Britain to be used as a launching pad to fight Russia? If we were to give safe haven to militants of the IRA, with arms in their hands, what would you do? Why can they engage in open anti-Russian activity? That's why it's not possible to build normal relations with Britain," he said.

Despite his tough language over the South Ossetia conflict, Putin refused to issue threats against the west for supporting Georgia. He accused the US of training the Georgian army before its attack on the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, last month. "They sent instructors who helped to mobilize the Georgian forces. Of course we had to respond."

Throughout the three-hour meeting, he blamed the west for being stuck in cold war "anti-Russian phobia", and the American presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, for "playing the Russian card". This was "only a sign of the candidates' weakness", he said.

Making it clear that any expansion of Nato to Georgia or Ukraine would be unwelcome to Moscow, Putin said it was time to create a security architecture for Europe which reflected the new realities in the continent. Moscow had no imperial aims, he said, and should be credited for dismantling the Soviet Union. "Had it not been for Russia, the Soviet Union wouldn't have been dismantled," he said.

He accused Washington of trying to frighten Europe into taking anti-Russian positions. "The west is not homogeneous. Is it a monolith? The monolith was created during the cold war because of a dangerous Soviet Union. Europeans aren't scared now, however much you want to frighten them," he said.

He took issue with the Bush administration's recent decision to install long-range missiles in Poland, ostensibly as a defence against potential missiles from Iran. Iran had no such missiles, he said, and the US missile system's intentions were clear. If the US deployed any missiles, Russia would target Poland in return.

"Our targeting will start as soon as the missiles are deployed," Putin said. "We say, please don't do so. Don't try again to instigate an arms race in Europe."

He criticized the Bush administration for foisting decisions on Europe. The missile decisions "began with bilateral talks with Poland, and then they started to convince Europe it was in their interest". He made the same point about Ukraine's government's decision to seek Nato membership. "Eighty percent of Ukranians don't want it," he said.

While appealing to the EU not to take an anti-Russian line, he accused its leaders of being under Washington's thumb. The US recently agreed to send monitors to Georgia, but Putin said, sarcastically: "If the European Union comes in any form to the Caucasus, there's an idea they would somehow diminish the presence of the US, but they are a tool of the US, however displeasing that may sound."

He denied he was in overall control of Russian decision-making, insisting that his successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, was the commander in chief. "He's modern, with a liberal democratic view of things and an excellent education. I am sorry it was his lot to have to deal with this crisis. He is a decent man. He had to give the order to send troops to these republics [South Ossetia and the other breakaway region of Abkhazia]. He had to recognize these republics, he couldn't do otherwise. These were his decisions - not a tank could move without the order of the commander in chief."

Putin made it clear that Russia could easily have occupied Georgia and toppled its president, Mikheil Saakashvili. "Our forces were 15 kilometers [nine miles] from Tbilisi [the Georgian capital]. It would have taken four hours to capture Tbilisi. We didn't have that goal."