Washington - The blame game between Russia and Georgia over who started the war and who continues to inflict more damage continued Friday, as former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev sparred with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on CNN.

Georgia may blame Russia for the conflict in South Ossetia, but "there is no doubt" that Georgia provoked the clash, Gorbachev told CNN's Larry King.

He said that Russia moved additional troops into South Ossetia to counter the "barbaric assault" of Georgia on the city of Tskhinvali.

"Western television didn't show what happened in Tskhinvali," Gorbachev said. "Only now they're beginning to show some pictures of the destruction. So this looks to me like it was a well-prepared project. And with any outcome, they wanted to put the blame on Russia."

Saakashvili, who also appeared on the programme immediately after, said: "Shame on you, Mr Gorbachev, for perpetuating the very regime you helped to defeat and you fought against as the head of the Soviet Union."

The Georgian president said he was disappointed that Gorbachev, a man he once respected, would use a television show "for basically vindicating lies and deceptions."

"This is the man, Mr Gorbachev, who helped to, you know, bring down KGB kingdom. And he is the one who is, you know, justifying what the KGB people are doing right now in my country," Saakashvili said.

Gorbachev, a 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the United States was putting its relationship with Russia at risk by backing Georgia. (dpa)