The United States has enraged Russian officials by training the Georgian military, which has contributed 2,000 troops to American efforts in Iraq, and backing the country's application for membership to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Many Russians accuse Saakashvili of trying to seize Tskhinvali to quell the separatists in hopes of making Georgia more attractive for its NATO application.

The Kremlin sees the U.S. relationship with Georgia as part of a continued strategy to isolate it from the Soviet sphere of influence, including plans for a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

On Saturday morning, the Russian foreign ministry lashed out at Ukraine—another former Soviet republic that's applying for NATO membership with American support—for "vigorously arming the Georgian army to the teeth over the past few years, thus directly encouraging the Georgian leadership to invade South Ossetia."

Georgia is withdrawing its troops from Iraq as soon as transportation is arranged, which they've asked the United States to do, said Georgian commander Col. Bondo Maisuradze.

"We're ready to leave. We're just waiting for the plane now," Maisuradze said.

As of Saturday, flights to Georgia from Russia were canceled and access to its government Web sites from Moscow appeared to have been blocked.