Georgia Accuses Russia of Shooting Down Unmanned Spy Plane
By VOA News
21 April 2008
Georgia has accused neighboring Russia of sending a Russian Air Force plane into Georgian airspace to shoot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane.
Georgia Monday released video said to come from the spy plane's on-board camera. Authorities say the video shows a Russian MIG-29 fighter jet Sunday launching a missile at the drone in the breakaway Abkhazia region. Moscow denies the charge.
The Georgian accusation comes as Moscow seeks to ease bilateral tensions stoked by a Russian decision last week to strengthen ties with Abkhazia and a second breakaway region, South Ossetia.
Moscow today restored postal links with Georgia, ending a cut-off imposed in 2006 after Georgian authorities briefly arrested four Russian military officers accused of spying.
The postal resumption also clears the way for money transfers - a traditionally important cash link between Georgians working in Russia and families in their homeland.
The resumption follows a separate Russian announcement last week that it will increase cooperation in trade and culture with the two breakaway regions.
That move triggered international condemnation and demands from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili that Russia halt all actions aimed at supporting rebels in the regions.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s, prompting fighting and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the areas.
Georgia has repeatedly accused the peacekeepers of supporting the separatists and vowed to bring both areas back under central government control.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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