Moscow - War booty nabbed in the rout of Georgian forces has gone on display at Moscow's military museum, courtesy of the Russian army. And the message is clear.

"We fought the US, that's what this exhibit says. They are responsible for this conflict," Giorgy Gavrikov, 72, a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, said as he left the small exhibition room that looks to become a permanent part of the Central Army Museum.

Visitors, who didn't appear to need much convincing, crowded around the prize display case showing off captured personal effects: an English-language weapons instruction booklet and an English text book stamped with the emblem of an airbase in the US state of Texas.

But the favorite, irrefutable proof of the United States hand in training Georgian troops for the invasion is the worn, personal snapshot of a Georgian soldier draping his arm around a black man in a flak jacket.

The image of a black soldier - assumed to be American because of his skin colour - was one vividly evoked throughout the conflict by refugees fleeing from South Ossetia, repeating the Russian television line which blamed the US for the conflict.

The current exhibit hammers home the same theme.

Another showcase has on view particularly unthrilling NATO rations such as a green army blanket. But, of course, it was about the story - and the NATO label was prominent. Above hung a list of alliance member countries who sold Georgia arms.

A grey-haired museum attendant on a recent Sunday afternoon enthusiastically volunteered words for visitors leaving the exhibit.

"Doesn't it make things clear! I watched you study it all attentively," she said, assailing a young man. "It shows the truth - who gave them the weapons, what they did."

But, added the attendant - "It was all such a rush to get everything here." The museum opened barely a month after the fighting ended.

It was a sign of the deep rancour fanned by war propaganda that shots of the mutilated bodies of Georgian soldiers, bloated from days without burial, were shown, while in other glass cases photos of wounded Russian peacekeepers and war-ravaged refugees were on display.

Rather than displaying any pacifist tendencies, most weekend visitors seemed disappointed with the paucity of hardware on display from the Georgia conflict.

"I've known who was behind this war for a long time, I came to see the trophies," 22-year-old Andrei said dejectedly.

Alexandra Filinkova took pictures with her father and six-year- old daughter in front of a tank that flanks the entrance of the museum, still dominated by a massive bust of Lenin.

The Filinkov family made time to visit the museum on a stopover in Moscow on their way home to Siberia from vacation in Europe.

"Russia did well. I'm proud and I'm glad I could show my daughter," she said simply of her visit. (dpa)