UN Council to Discuss Russia’s Alleged "Military Aggression"

By Diane Smith
12:28, April 22nd 2008
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UN Council to Discuss Russia’s Alleged "Military Aggression"

After accusing Russia of shooting down one of its unnamed spy planes in its own air space, Georgia took the next step and called on the United Nations Security Council to address Moscow’s alleged "military aggression".

The UN responded and announced it will hold a closed-door meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

Tension between the two former members of the Soviet Union has escalated after Georgia claimed that Russia sent one of its Air Force jet fighters to shoot down a Georgian spy drone on Sunday. The drone was reportedly shot down while it was flying above the break-away region of Abkhazia.

Georgia’s foreign minister David Bakradze will most likely attend the meeting.

"We did not object to having a meeting ... and we'll have things to say at that meeting as well," said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador. He added that reminded the Security Council to also hear what the Abkhazian side has to say about this.

"We will continue to work having them invited to speak to the council," Churkin said.

Tension was on the rise between Russia and Georgia even before the drone was shot down. Moscow’s moves such as granting the vast majority of the Abkhazian's residents Russian citizenship and lifting 12-year-old trade sanctions against it have strenghtened ties between the two sides.

Moreover, Russia told Georgia that it will have to renounce to its claims on the break-away regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia if it joins NATO.

However, at the NATO Summit recently held in Bucharest, Romania, the organization did not offer Georgia a road map for membership, probably because such a miove would have bothered Russia.

According to Georgian officials, Moscow sent one of Russian Air Force’s jets into the Georgian air space to shoot down the spy plane on Sunday. Tbilisi also released a video recorded by a camera aboard the destroyed plane in which one can clearly see a Russian MIG-29 jet launching a missile at the reconnaissance drone in the breakaway Abkhazia region.

Russia declined the accusations. Russia’s Air Force Commander Alexander Drobyshevsky denied that such an attack had ever taken place and argued that the Russian Air Force pilots had a day off right when the Georgian spy plane was destroyed, Interfax news agency reported.



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