GEORGIA:Russia and Georgia are facing a new crisis in relations after accusations that Moscow sent jets to bomb a village close to the Georgian capital.
Georgia reacted angrily to the "act of aggression", in which a 700kg explosive device was allegedly dropped by two fighter bombers near Tsitelubani, a village about 40 miles northwest of Tbilisi.
The device, possibly a guided missile, did not explode and no one was hurt but Georgia's interior ministry said it could have caused a "disaster". Moscow denied the attack on Monday night.
The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, said after a visit to the site where the missile landed: "this is not Georgia's problem. This is a problem for European security and safety". He drew a parallel with cyber-attacks on Estonia this year, which some there blamed on the Kremlin, and said European states should not appease Moscow.
"I don't really see how often it can happen and how further these intrusions might go before the international community has a really strong reaction," he told Reuters. "We all should stop them before it's too late. I think this time we'll get much more outcry and much more reaction."
Ties between the two former Soviet states have deteriorated in recent years. Russia is angry that Georgia receives aid and military training from the US and plans to join Nato. Georgia is annoyed by Russia's support for its breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
Relations hit a low last year when Tbilisi expelled four Russian soldiers accused of spying.
It was unclear why Tsitelubani had been singled out for the strike, or why the missile had not detonated. Georgian analysts claimed Russia was seeking to warn the West that it maintained dominance over its neighbour and the particular target was not significant.
The Georgian interior minister, Vano Merabishvili, told reporters that radar had picked up two Su-34 jets flying in from Russia, one of which had fired a missile. "I assess this fact as an act of aggression carried out by planes flown from the territory of another state," he said.
The missile fell in the Gori region, not far from South Ossetia, the de facto independent republic that seceded from Georgia in the early 1990s after a civil war. Television pictures yesterday showed Georgian soldiers inspecting a crater in a cornfield near a farmhouse and collecting shards of the device bearing Cyrillic lettering.
About 500 Russian peacekeepers are based in South Ossetia and there have been unconfirmed reports that Moscow has moved military hardware into the region, which it borders. However, a spokesman for the peacekeeping forces denied there were any Russian aircraft in the republic. The forces' commander, Gen Marat Kulakhmetov, said that an unidentified aircraft dropped the missile after it had flown over South Ossetia and had come under ground fire. He suggested the aircraft had come from Georgia. South Ossetia's de facto president, Eduard Kokoity, accused Tbilisi of sending the aircraft itself in a "provocation".
"A Georgian military plane crossed into South Ossetia on Monday, performed manoeuvres above Ossetian villages and dropped two bombs," he told Interfax news agency. "It was a provocation staged by the Georgian side, aimed at discrediting Russia." He said one of the bombs fell on the Gori district.
In Tbilisi, the Russian ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko, who had only recently returned after being recalled by Moscow during the spy scandal, was summoned to the foreign ministry to receive an official note of protest and to "provide explanations". The Russian air force said its aircraft had not violated Georgia's airspace.
Alexander Rondeli, president of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, said: "As always the Russians pretend the bomb appeared from New Zealand or Mars but we know our great neighbour enjoys sending us these little gifts. This was a message from Russia to the West that this is our sphere of influence and you have to know your place". Tbilisi has been lobbying the EU to support its plan to take South Ossetia back under its wing and install a pro-Georgian leader, so far with little success.