Pro-NATO Forces in Georgia Made Up Missile Incident – Russian MFA

The August 6 missile incident was masterminded by forces within Georgia who aspire for the country’s accession to “well-known military structures” at the expense of fueling tensions with Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on August 24.

The point was made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Russian special envoy for CIS affairs Valery Kenyakin at a meeting with ambassadors from Germany and France in Moscow on August 24.

Kenyakin was a member of the Russian investigatory group, which worked in Georgia to probe into the missile incident on August 16-17 and which concluded that the incident had been staged by the Georgian side.

“He [Kenyakin] briefed the ambassadors over the military-technical data, which definitely prove it was a provocation, masterminded and organized by forces in Georgia, who, for the sake of accession into well-known military structures [apparently referring to NATO], do their utmost to undermine Russian-Georgian relations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Following the August 6 missile incident, NATO offered to share air radar data with Georgia. The Georgian authorities said they expected this to happen sometime this year.