Russia has demanded an investigation into the reported violation
of Georgian airspace by Russian fighters which Tbilisi accused have
dropped a bomb near a settlement in the Caucasus country Monday
evening, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on
Tuesday.
"We are sure that the results of the investigation -- and we are
calling for it to begin immediately -- will identify the true
organizers and participants. Ambassador Yuri Popov has left Tbilisi
for Tskhinvali to examine the situation on the spot," the ministry
was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Ustiashvili said
earlier on Tuesday that two Russian fighter jets on Monday evening
"violated the Georgian airspace and dropped a rocket near the
Tsitelubani settlement" that did not explode and caused no
casualty.
The air-ground rocket fell "several tens meters from a highway
and houses of rural dwellers, nobody has been hurt," Ustiashvili
was quoted as saying. The village is located some 15 km from the
Gori city and is close to the South Ossetia region.
Georgian special
police carry the motor of a missile, which Georgia says was fired
from a jet flown from Russia, near the village of Tsitelubani, some
40 miles west of Tbilisi, August 7, 2007.
Russia wants to find out the truth about the trespassing
incident in Georgia, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said
on Tuesday.
"We are very concerned over the August 6 incident, because it
pretty much resembles the March 11 provocative act in the Kodori
Gorge. This is another part of Georgia, but the situation is
similar," Karasin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as
saying.
"Georgian claims don't quite fit the reality," Karasin said, "we
want to clarify the situation. Things will be very hard without
this clarification."
Relations between Georgia, a former Soviet republic, and Russia
have been strained by tensions over Georgia's breakaway regions of
South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The two regions broke away from Georgia's central government in
the early 1990s, when Russian peacekeepers were deployed there.
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)
