Georgia is alleging Russian war aircraft unintentionally trespassing its frontier

Monday, February 24, 2020

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Georgia is alleging Russian war aircraft unintentionally trespassing its frontier. Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, Russian Air Force press service chief, resolutely denied it to Novosti. No Russian aircraft have appeared either along the Russo-Georgian frontier or in the North Caucasus yesterday and today, he said with emphasis. President Mikhail Saakashvili expressed displeasure, earlier on the day, as Russian war planes allegedly appeared in Georgia today. "I hope it was by sheer chance," he remarked to the media. He also alleged Russian supplies of latter-day arms to South Ossetia via the Roksky tunnel. The President went so far as to say that the conflict concerns Russia and Georgia alone. "Whatever attempts to get the conflict onto the plane of Georgian-Osset relations are futile. The matter pertains to Georgian-Russian relations, and we shall not put up with Ossets implicated," he said. Georgia is willing to engage in a constructive dialogue with Russia-"but when certain people in the State Duma [Russia's lower parliamentary house] are out to pressure us, they won't have it their way." President Saakashvili is in permanent contact with the U.S. and Russian tops to settle the Georgian-Osset conflict by peaceful means, he reassured. "Washington is keeping abreast with developments in the Tskhinvali Region [Georgian name for South Ossetia]. I am going to Great Britain on an official visit tomorrow. International support is essential to us now-the whole world must know what is really going on in the Tskhinvali Region." The Georgian-Osset dispute started in 1989, after Georgia abolished South Osset autonomy. An acute and sanguinary conflict stage lasted into 1992. South Ossetia proclaimed independence to trigger off violent interethnic clashes. Georgia retaliated with tough punitive action. International peacekeepers were introduced in the conflict zone, 1992. A Mixed Control Commission established the same year has been monitoring conflict zone developments ever since. Represented on the commission are Russia, Georgia and the two Osset republics-South Ossetia and North Ossetia, autonomy within Russia, whose population accounts for a majority of ethnic Ossets. International peacekeepers were introduced in the area also in 1992.

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