Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks came several hours before European Union leaders agreed to postpone talks with Russia on a wide-ranging political and economic agreement unless Russia pulls its troops back from positions in Georgia.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he plans to travel to Moscow on Sept. 8 for talks with the Russian leadership. A cease-fire he brokered to end fighting between Russia and Georgia calls for forces to be withdrawn to their positions before the war.
There was no immediate response to the EU summit's decisions from the Kremlin. The Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified Russian Foreign Ministry official as saying that the decision was a cause for regret.
Earlier in the day, Russia warned the West against supporting Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo until the Georgian government falls.
"If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions," Lavrov said, calling for an arms embargo against Georgia.
Shortly after, the spokesman for Lavrov's ministry suggested U.S. ships that have carried humanitarian aid to Georgia's Black Sea coast following last month's war could have also delivered weapons.
Without naming a specific country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said there were "suppositions" that the cargo of military ships bringing aid to Georgia could have included "military components that will be used for the rearmament" of Georgia. He said such suspicions were behind Russia's call for an arms embargo.
Neither the U.S. State Department nor the Pentagon had immediate comment on the claim, which followed similar allegations by the Russian military.
Russia's ties to the West have been driven to their lowest point since the Cold War by the war last month in Georgia. Even before that, Saakashvili had angered Russia by courting the West and seeking NATO membership.
Russia repelled a Georgian offensive against the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia and sent troops and tanks deep into undisputed Georgian territory, where some still remain.
Last week, Russia recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, as independent countries.
The United States and Europe have accused Russia of using disproportionate force and of violating the cease-fire. They have denounced Russia's recognition of the separatist regions, saying Georgia's borders must remain intact.
Russia says it was provoked. Russian peacekeeping forces were stationed in both provinces before the war and Moscow had given most of their residents Russian passports in recent years, enabling it to argue that it was defending its citizens when it responded to Georgia's Aug. 7 offensive to regain control over South Ossetia.
A New York-based human rights group said Monday that Georgia and Russia both dropped cluster bombs in the war. The weapons are widely denounced for killing and injuring civilians.
"These indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law," said Bonnie Docherty, arms division researcher at Human Rights Watch. She said the toll from cluster bombs in only four Georgia villages was 14 dead and dozens wounded.
Human Rights Watch claimed Georgia's government has admitted using the bombs, while Russia denies it. The organization called on Russia to allow de-mining groups to enter South Ossetia to reduce the threat of more deaths from unexploded ordnance.
EU nations are preparing to send hundreds of civilian monitors to Georgia to verify whether Russian forces are complying with the cease-fire agreement, foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nesterenko said Russia would welcome an EU-dominated international police presence and more military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in what is now a Russian-controlled zone around Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.
But he said Russia would want be part of the police force, and that it would be a long time before Russia would consider reducing its military presence in and around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Amid the continuing tensions, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said that South Ossetian militias raided the village of Koda in the buffer zone Monday, killing a woman and wounding two children. He would not give any further details and neither Russian nor separatist officials were available for comment late Monday.
Huge crowds of Georgians surged into the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, Monday to demonstrate against Russia while others gathered at a Russian checkpoint where soldiers are guarding the "security zone" Moscow claimed for itself after last month's war.
Large demonstrations also took place in Poti, the Black Sea port city where Russian forces have a checkpoint on the outskirts, and in Gori, which was bombed and then occupied by Russian forces.
