Russian troops 'block refugees'
Updated on 30 August 2008
Russian troops are preventing Georgian refugees from returning to their homes, officials have claimed.
Russian troops are still manning checkpoints in Georgia and patrolling the Black Sea port of Poti after Moscow pulled back much of the force it deployed to crush Georgia's attempt to take back two separatist provinces.
Moscow has since recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, drawing a storm of criticism from Western governments. They say the Russian presence in Georgia's heartland amounts to a partial occupation.
Georgia announced it will cut all diplomatic ties with the Kremlin in response to the move.
Lado Vardzelashvili, the governor of Gori, a Georgian city occupied by Russian forces during the brief conflict, said Russian soldiers are still occupying nearby villages and preventing 28,000 residents from returning home.
Russia says it is within its rights under a ceasefire to maintain peacekeepers in a buffer zone outside the rebel areas, a point disputed by France, which brokered the deal.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed US military advisers were involved in the conflict and accused the White House of provoking the crisis to help Republicans win the US presidential election.
"In a significant way, the crisis was provoked, including by our American friends in the course of the election struggle," Mr Putin said in an interview.
A senior US diplomat in the region has said Washington pleaded with Tbilisi to refrain from attacking the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and stay out of the conflict.
Diplomats have said EU nations are reluctant to impose sanctions on Russia and have received signals from the Kremlin that it will retaliate.
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