Russia invaded Georgia on false pretext, Biden says

Russia "used a pretext to invade your country," Vice President Biden told Georgian children Thursday, explaining that the bigger neighbor hoped to wreck Georgia's economy this way and persuade its people that "democracy doesn't work."

At the end of a trip aimed at assuring Ukraine and Georgia of continued US support, Biden at the last minute agreed to take questions from the Georgian refugee children, Washington Post writes Friday.

In doing that, Biden appeared to go off script, delivering on national television one of the administration's strongest criticisms of the Russian government to date.

"What we can do is make clear to the world, and to the Russians particularly, that we stand with you, and that if they fail to meet their commitments, that it is a problem for them," Biden said, referring to a cease-fire pact that Georgia says Russia is violating.

"A lot of you think maybe Russia did what they did, and they paid no price," Biden continued. "They paid a pretty big price already diplomatically. The countries that surround Russia, even those that have been very, very loyal to Russia in their freedom, are now saying very harsh things."

"Russia has isolated itself more," he added. "It has not expanded its opportunities."

Moscow maintains that Georgia started the war by attacking a separatist enclave, forcing Russian intervention to prevent a genocide.

Biden told the children that he would "tell the rest of the world we should not in any circumstance recognize the independence of South Ossetia or Abkhazia," the two breakaway regions that Russia backed as sovereign states after it won the August war.

"Make Georgia a great success," he said. "When there's freedom and opportunity, then that's the thing that will unite Georgia once again."