Russia has demanded an investigation into the reported violation of Georgian airspace by Russian fighters which Tbilisi accused have dropped a bomb near a settlement in the Caucasus country Monday evening, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
"We are sure that the results of the investigation -- and we are calling for it to begin immediately -- will identify the true organizers and participants. Ambassador Yuri Popov has left Tbilisi for Tskhinvali to examine the situation on the spot," the ministry was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Ustiashvili said earlier on Tuesday that two Russian fighter jets on Monday evening "violated the Georgian airspace and dropped a rocket near the Tsitelubani settlement" that did not explode and caused no casualty.
The air-ground rocket fell "several tens meters from a highway and houses of rural dwellers, nobody has been hurt," Ustiashvili was quoted as saying. The village is located some 15 km from the Gori city and is close to the South Ossetia region.
Georgian special police carry the motor of a missile, which Georgia says was fired from a jet flown from Russia, near the village of Tsitelubani, some 40 miles west of Tbilisi, August 7, 2007.
Russia wants to find out the truth about the trespassing incident in Georgia, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Tuesday.
"We are very concerned over the August 6 incident, because it pretty much resembles the March 11 provocative act in the Kodori Gorge. This is another part of Georgia, but the situation is similar," Karasin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
"Georgian claims don't quite fit the reality," Karasin said, "we want to clarify the situation. Things will be very hard without this clarification."
Relations between Georgia, a former Soviet republic, and Russia have been strained by tensions over Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The two regions broke away from Georgia's central government in the early 1990s, when Russian peacekeepers were deployed there.
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)
