The United States' "carte blanche" support for Georgia's leaders helped provoke the conflict there and should now be scrapped, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said today.
"The United States of America actively helped Georgia draw up its military policy and stuffed it with money and weapons," Mr Medvedev said in an interview recorded at his Black Sea summer residence.
"Unfortunately, at a certain point they gave [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili carte blanche for any actions, including military. All that was translated into aggression."
"This is very sad, and I think it is time for our American partners to re-evaluate their relations with the current regime, if only because he [Saakashvili] has put Georgia in a very awkward situation," Mr Medvedev said in the interview.
But his criticism was milder than remarks by his mentor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has accused Washington of orchestrating the violence in Georgia to benefit the Republican candidate in the race for the White House.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Georgia and two other ex-Soviet states this week to reinforce Washington's support for allies in Russia's backyard.
The Kremlin incurred Western condemnation for sending troops and tanks into Georgia and recognising the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
Russia said it was forced to act to prevent what it called a genocide of the separatist population after Mr Saakashvili's troops attempted to retake South Ossetia.
Reuters