Tbilisi Accuses Moscow of Air Strike
A fresh Russo-Georgian standoff is mounting as Tbilisi has accused Moscow of an air attack, less than five months after army helicopters attacked upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia.
At least one attack aircraft fired at least one rocket which landed in the South Ossetian conflict zone on the evening of August 6. No casualties were reported.
All sides – Georgians, Russians and South Ossetians – acknowledge that an attack took place, but there is little or no agreement on the interpretation or analysis of the event.
Georgia?s Claims
The Georgian Interior Ministry said on August 7 that two Russian attack aircraft, presumed to be SU-24s, violated Georgia’s airspace and one of then fired an air-to-surface guided rocket onto Georgian territory.
The rocket, which did not explode, was fired on an area near to Shavshvebi and Tsiteliubani in the Shida Kartli region, which is near breakaway South Ossetia. The area is about 80 kilometers from the Russian border and about 65 kilometers from Tbilisi. It was fired at about 7:30 pm local time on August 6.
?We have all the evidence, including air traffic records indicating that the jet had come from Russian territory over [Georgia?s] Kazbegi district and returned to Russia via the same route,? Vano Merabishvili, the interior minister, said.
There is a Georgian air defense radar in the village of Shavshvebi.
?According to the preliminary information, an SU-24 [Fencer] attack aircraft was involved,? Merabishvili said.
The Interior Ministry has also said in its statement that according to air traffic records, aircraft took off from an air base near the town of Mozdok in Russia?s North Ossetian Republic.
“This is an act of aggression carried out by foreign aircraft,” Merabishvili said.
Russia?s Response
Russian officials have strongly denied Moscow had any involvement and stopped short of directly accusing Tbilisi of staging a provocation.
The Russian ambassador in Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, was summoned by the Georgian Foreign Ministry early on August 7.
?I do not know what has happened. Ask those who have organized it,? he told journalists after the meeting in the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
?By the way, SU type aircraft are available to the Georgian airforce,? he added.
Echoing remarks by Ambassador Kovalenko, the chief Russian negotiator for South Ossetia, Yuri Popov, who is currently in Georgia, said on August 7 that that the aircraft was an SU-25 and not an SU-24 as reported by the Georgian side. SU-25s are used by the Georgian airforce.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has also strongly denied any involvement. ?Russian jets have not conducted any flights in the named area; hence Russian jets have not violated Georgia?s airspace,? Col. Alexander Drobishevsky, an aide to the commander of the Russian air force, told RIA Novosti news agency on August 7.
Meanwhile, the South Ossetian secessionist leader, Eduard Kokoity, claimed that Georgian aircraft had dropped two bombs in the conflict zone on August 6 in order to incriminate Russia.
Kokoity said one bomb landed in a forested area in South Ossetia and another in Georgian-controlled territory.
Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in South Ossetia, also suggested that two bombs had been dropped. Russian peacekeepers, he said, were searching for one of them. ?We will definitely find it,? he added.
On March 11, 2007, the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia came under fire. Georgia claimed Russian army helicopters were involved. Moscow has denied any involvement.
A report by the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), issued on July 12, only suggested, but did not explicitly claim, that Russian army helicopters could have been involved in the attack.
Tbilisi said the investigation of the March 11 attack was inconclusive because of the Russian side?s non-cooperative stance and demanded that the international probe be re-opened.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)