Georgian Spy Plane Reached the UN
// The Security Council to discuss the situation in Abkhazia
The case of the Georgian unmanned spy plane shot down over Abkhazia has reached an international level. Today it will be discussed at the UN Security Council extraordinary session. Yesterday the USA urged Russia to stop the intimidation in the Caucasus. Kommersant tried to sort out the arguments of Tbilisi and Moscow.
The intimidation
Yesterday the scandal over Georgia’s unmanned spy plane shot down over the Gali district, Abkhazia, Sunday morning, reached an international level. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack claimed that Washington was “very concerned” with the incident and recalled “the provocative incidents that occurred in the past.” Mr McCormack reiterated the U.S. “support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia.” “No state should be taking actions that would violate that,” he said. American Congressmen were even tougher. Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Alcee Hastings of the Democratic Party, urged Moscow to cancel President Putin’s orders regarding Abkhazia and South Ossetia and stop the intimidation in the Caucasus. The U.S. Senate is equally resolute. “Russia’s policy aims at punishing Georgia for its aspiration to join NATO. I can understand Georgia’s desire to expand its links with the West, especially when its northern neighbor is determined to escalate the tension,” claimed Senator Benjamin Cardin of the Democratic Party.
Besides the governments of Estonia, Lithuania and Poland sided with Georgia yesterday. The Estonian Parliament adopted a statement, severely criticizing Moscow’s recent steps concerning Tbilisi. At the same time Poland’s President Lech Kaczyński and Lithuania’s President Valdas Adamkus announced their intention to visit Tbilisi soon, giving moral support to Georgia in its confrontation with Russia.
Today the UN Security Council, whose extraordinary session was urged at Georgia’s request, will discuss the situation over the shooting down of the unmanned spy plane. According to Irakly Alasaniya, Georgia’s envoy to the UN, Moscow’s recent steps are “an open threat to the state system and sovereignty of Georgia, undermining regional stability.” “Russia is crossing a critical line discrediting itself as a party fostering conflict settlement,” the Georgian diplomat stated. David Bakradze, Georgian Foreign Minister, arrived in New York to take the floor at the UN. At that, according to Kommersant, the representatives of Georgia with the UN did their best to seek an open speech for their minister, but Russia insisted on the behind-closed-doors format. The discussion at the UN is likely to be heated. “We have much to say,” said Vitaly Churkin, Russian UN special envoy.
An unidentified flying trespasser
Yesterday Russia began putting forward arguments in its defense. Russia’s Ambassador to Tbilisi Vyacheslav Kovalenko, summoned to Georgia’s Foreign Office Monday, said that the officials showed neither radar video footage nor other records of the incident. “Even if they were shown to me, I wouldn’t be able to pass judgement; specialists are to take up the matter,” stated the Russian diplomat categorically and went on to censure Tbilisi, “Since early April Georgian unmanned planes have flied over the zone of the conflict overriding the agreements.”
The Foreign Ministry of Russia condemned Tbilisi’s policy yesterday. “The flight of the Georgian unmanned plane is evidently the violation of the treaties and agreements on settling the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia,” the officials opine. “The UN mission received a message about the flight from the Georgian Interior Ministry at 7 p.m. Sunday and was not able to inform the Abkhazian party in advance. This said, the flight was unapproved military action.” In the statement of the Foreign Office, the number of the unmanned plane manufactured by Israel’s Elbit System Ltd. – 553 – is mentioned.
Russia’s military expressed their indignation at Tbilisi’s steps, denying flatly their being privy to the incident. “The talk about our jet shooting down the unmanned plane is utter nonsense! It was Palm Sunday, a holiday: none of our pilots flied there,” Alexander Drobyshevsky, Russia’s Air Forces Spokesman, told Kommersant yesterday. “We have documentary evidence proving that no Russian planes were there at that moment.”
The Abkhazian party made public its version of the incident. Sukhumi doesn’t deny the fact that the unmanned plane was shot down with an air-to-air missile. The Foreign Secretary of the unrecognized republic, Sergey Shamba, told Kommersant about it Sunday, a few hours after the incident. “The Georgian party sends this sort of aircraft to the routes used for civil air fleet, so a decision was taken to shoot down that jet from the air, rather than from the surface,” the Minister explained.
Yesterday Mr Shamba reasserted that version specifying that “an L-39 plane of Abkhazian Air Forces participated in the operation, and an Abkhazian was the pilot.” At the same time, according to Abkhazia’s Foreign Minister, “the jets were purchased in Chechnya during the war with Georgia. During the war we shot down many Georgian planes with them.”
By the way, the Head of the Press Department of Russia’s Air Forces refused to answer a question of Kommersant, whether the Air Forces of Abkhazia were able to purchase the L-39 planes in Chechnya. “It’s necessary to refer to archives,” Colonel Dobryshevsky said. At that, the Czech L-39 jet trainers were adopted by the Soviet army deployed in Chechnya up to 1991, later falling in the hands of Dzhokhar Dudaev’s adherents. According to some data, some of these planes were delivered to Abkhazia before 1994, with the last jets destroyed by the federal army in the airport of Grozny. All the same, military experts doubt the authenticity of the Sukhumi version. According to them, it’s difficult to equip L-39 with missiles.
Sergey Shamba was especially indignant over the fact that the Georgian party denied the flight of its unmanned jet over Abkhazia till Monday. Sunday Nana Intskirveli, spokesperson with Georgia’s Defense Ministry, assured Kommersant that “our planes made no flights in the direction of Ochamchiri or other territories in control of Abkhazia.” “First they told a lie that it was not their jet, now they have cut a video and accuse Russia,” Sergey Shamba told Kommersant.
The record the Abkhazian Minister means was published on the Internet by the Georgian party yesterday. The footage, which the spy plane allegedly managed to send, shows a fighter jet assaulting it. The first launch of a missile missed the target, but the second one hit it – this is where the video suddenly stops. At the same time the indication of the radars reading that the jet took off from a Russian base in Gudaut, was not displayed.
Russian experts doubt the authenticity of this record. “The footage features not an L-39 plane, but a jet resembling Mikoyan MiG-29 or Sukhoy Su-27,” Konstantin Makienko, expert with the Center of Strategies and Technologies, said. “But there is absurdity in the footage. Unmanned apparatus of the “Hermes 450” type are designed to monitor surface, they have no detectors to find targets in the air. Nothing can account for the unmanned jet redirecting its camera to the plane assaulting it.” The expert expressed his bewilderment by the fact that the fighter used a missile against the “Hermes” from such a close position. “Besides, a launch of a missile from the fighter wingtip’s is shown, whereas MiG-29 doesn’t have them,” Mr Makienko added.
Representatives of the Mikoyan corporation told Kommersant that “to judge of the authenticity of the footage, one must carry out its detailed analysis. Still, when watching the record, you can see the fuzzy edges of the plane and the trace of the missile, which suggests that the footage could have been cut.”
Desctructive orders
To all appearances, the participants of today’s UN Security Council session will have to sort out quite intricate data of the two parties. It can’t be ruled out that this time the case may end like the previous incident as last August Russia’s H-58 missile was detected in the territory of Georgia – Moscow then vetoed further discussion.
At the same time the escalation of the scandal over the unmanned plane is beneficial for Tbilisi, since now the media campaign launched by the government of Georgia aims at discrediting Russia’s President Vladimir Putin initiatives on the fusion of Abkhazia and South Ossetia into the economic and social system of Russia. Abkhazia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba and Head of the Information Committee of South Ossetia Irina Glagoleva told Kommersant that the preparation for executing these orders has been at full pace with the unrecognized republics. In particular, according to the information of Kommersant, in the framework of these initiatives Sergey Bagapsh arrives in Moscow for a visit today. He can be accompanied by the leader of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoyty as well.
Boris Malakhov, acting Head of the Press Department of the Foreign Ministry of Russia, summed it up for Kommersant, “We execute the orders of Russia’s President. Orders are to be executed.”
Alexander Gabuev, Konstantin Lantratov, Georgy Dvali; Tbilisi
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 23, 2008
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