Russia, Georgia Retarget the Missile
In further escalation of the missile scandal of Moscow and Tbilisi, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) condemned Russia yesterday. According to Europe's main security and rights watchdog, the combat jets of Russia’s make violated Georgian airspace and dropped an air-to-ground missile on August 6. The RF Foreign Ministry rebuffed by recommending to OSCE to hold back such accusations at least till final clarification of all facts.
The story of Tbilisi that Russia attacked Georgia by a missile on August 6 is winning recognition worldwide. OSCE, for instance, stepped in yesterday to claim that the combat jets of Russia’s make and flown from Russia’s direction violated the airspace of Georgia and dropped a guided air-to-ground missile near the village of Tsitelubani. The argument of Europe’s watchdog is the data of Georgian radars.
Russia’s military have always denied any involvement in the incident, and the response of the RF Foreign Ministry was exaggeratedly calm. “I can say nothing new about it,” said Andrey Krivtsov, who is the deputy head of ministry’s information and mass media department. “We have stated our position, and it remains unchanged. Those were not the jets of Russia and not the missile of Russia.”
As to the OSCE comments, Krivtsov called them premature. “Before stating such things, it's better to wait for conclusions of special commissions,” the diplomat specified without giving the name of commission, which conclusions would be vital for Russia. The thing is that the incident is currently investigated by two independent authorities.
The first one unites experts from the United States, Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia and Tbilisi looks forwards to exactly their conclusions. Meanwhile, Moscow stakes on the work of another taskforce that is carrying out a parallel investigation and is formed by peacekeepers of Russia and South Ossetia. According to South Ossetia, the jets of Georgia were flying in its air and fired two missiles that August 6.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 15, 2007
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