UN to discuss Georgia-Russia row
Georgia claims Russian jet shot down a drone over its breakaway province of Abkhazia.
Speaking after the council discussed Georgia’s request for an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon, Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador, said: “We did not object to having a meeting … and we’ll have things to say at that meeting as well”.
Churkin said that he reminded the council of the need to hear the views of the Abkhazian side.
“We will continue to work having them invited to speak to the council,” he said.
Officials in Tbilisi released footage on Monday that they said came from the drone’s onboard camera and showed a Russian military MiG-29 jet launching a missile at the aircraft.
“What would a Russian jet fighter be doing over Georgian territory?” he said.
Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia’s president, said that he had telephoned Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, to protest against “these aggressive attacks on Georgia”.
“Today I spoke to the Russian Federation’s President Vladimir Putin. This was an uneasy talk,” Saakashvili said in a televised address.‘Destabilising factor’
The Kremlin said that Putin had warned the Georgian leader that flights by unmanned reconnaissance aircraft in the region risked increasing tensions.“It’s a Russian aircraft. Georgia does not possess it, nor do Abkhaz separatists,” he said. “It’s absolutely illegal for a Russian MiG-29 to be there.”
He said that radar had shown the aircraft took off from the Abkhazian town of Gudauta, the former site of a Russian military base.
‘Annexation’ claims
Last week, Georgia accused Moscow of the de facto annexation of Abkhazia after Putin ordered his government to establish closer ties with the provinces.
The controversy came as Russia restored postal links with Georgia, ending an embargo imposed in 2006 when Georgia arrested four Russian military officers on spying charges.
Russian officials have warned that Georgia will have to abandon its claims on the regions if it joins Nato.