Posted on 08/06/2007 11:36:04 PM PDT by Blackyce
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By Margarita Antidze
TSITELUBANI, Georgia (Reuters) - Georgia said on Tuesday that jets flown from Russia fired a missile on its territory, narrowly missing hitting a village, but Russia's military denied any involvement.
The missile landed without exploding in a vegetable field near the village of Tsitelubani, about 65 km (40 miles) west of the capital, Tbilisi, Georgian officials said.
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said it was an "act of aggression."
Russia has a long history of tense relations with its smaller neighbor, but Russia's air force said its aircraft had flown no sorties over the area.
In Tsitelubani, an unexploded missile could be seen embedded in a crater around 5 meters (16 ft) deep in a field of corn and potatoes fringed with fruit trees.
A small farmhouse stood about 35 meters (114 ft 10 in) from the crater.
"It happened yesterday at 1930 local time. Two Su-24 jets flew here. Our radars show that these jets flew from Russia and then flew back in the same direction that they had come from," Merabishvili told Reuters.
"I assess this fact as an act of aggression carried out by planes flown from the territory of another state," he said.
SU-24s were introduced into the Soviet Union's air force in the 1970s. They were designed as all-weather attack aircraft.
Bomb disposal experts were working at the scene, which police had cordoned off. A few dozen of Tsitelubani's residents watched on the sidelines.
"I was sitting in my garden resting a bandaged leg when I saw a plane in the sky," Ilia Psuturi said. "I then saw smoke rising from the ground up to the sky and only then did I hear the explosion. The plane then turned around."
Shota Utiashvili, the head of the Georgian interior ministry's public relations department, earlier told Reuters that the Russian jets had dropped a 700 kilo (1,543 lb) bomb.
"Fortunately it didn't explode. If it had exploded it would have been a disaster," he added. He said nobody was hurt.
TENSE RELATIONS
Russia's airforce denied that it had bombed Georgia, and said it had not violated its airspace.
"Russia's airforce neither on Monday nor Tuesday flew flights over Georgia," Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, aide to the commander of Russia's airforce, told Reuters.
"Russia has not violated the borders of sovereign Georgia."
The village of Tsitelubani is near the city of Gori, and a few kilometers to the south of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, a long-standing cause of friction between Russia and Tbilisi.
Russia provides moral and financial support for Georgia's rebel Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions. It has accused Tbilisi of pursuing anti-Russian policies.
Good thing Lugovoy got the hell outta the UK isn’t it? ==
British Crown prosecutors can present thier evidences to Russian court and prosecute him. Beleive me if he is guilty then his sentence may be even more severe then in UK.
But still the concerned party (Britain) should prove its case before Russian jury. If they refuse to do it into 10 year from the date of the crime then it means that they dropped the case due to the time expiration.
You and I know that the Russian judicial system is a joke, the only law that is working is the Law of Gravity.==
You say it out of your snobism. I see that many criminals got sentenced to the severe punishment each day. If you saw Russin TV show “Petrovka, 38” each day then you knew it.
Lugovoi say that the all evidences of Britts are forged by MI-6. He was just MARKED by Polonium that is why he had the Polo trail all over Europe. But notice he has no such trail when he arrived to London. His seat in the plane in which he arrived is clean. But his plane seat which he returned to Moscow has the Polo trail. SO he got contaninated in Britain.
Second thing, he came to the meeting with Litvinenko with wife and small son. Can you imagien it? Guy go to use the radioactive substance and take with him his family?
So I’m love to see the Britts evidences here in Russia but Brits got ducked unfortunately.
No, I say that out of my knowledge about the Russian judicial system, and if you are from Russia or is staying in Russia you know that as well. However, if you are a Gazputing apologetic you won’t admit it.==
I’m not Gazputin or so but the russian proverb says that “it is difficult to prove that you are not camel especially to the beleiving people”:)).
Anyways WHY Britts cann’t give it a try in Russian court? What if they will be surprised pleasantly? Maybe they worry that thier evidences got public and people will see they lame?
Did they score any hits on Atlanta?
There is another proverb: Zakon chto dyshlo, kuda povernyosh - tuda i vyshlo.
The translation: “Law is like a shaft of a cart, it points wherever you turn it to.”
Ping.
In a press release, Michael Vick's mother Brenda Boddie reacted and said:
"Why bomb us? My baby boy never did nuthin to nobody?"
“Russia’s airforce neither on Monday nor Tuesday flew flights over Georgia,” Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, aide to the commander of Russia’s airforce, told Reuters.
I believe him. Really.
Putin is not believable, given the recent interceptions of
Tupolevs above more than one country, Putin’s tactics
in Iran and Syria and ... , recent ploy with the
North Pole, showoff of new weapons, etc., etc.
Whew. I just woke up, logged on, and read the headline. I live in north Georgia and was ducking and weaving, heading for the basement.
LOL!
Cold War II and we had better win this one too!
LLS
Goldfarb...Berezovsky’s little lapdog. A bunch of crooks.
And it seems you are gullible enough to believe his crap.
Boy and I was just down in Atlanta too...
Saddle up boys, them Damn Yankees are threatening agin
What's the motive?
After what happened over Iraq, it is hard for some Americans to trust Putin. Oil for food? Are Russian hands clean? What equipment DID the Russians help Saddam get out of the country? Why DO the Russians continue to sell weaponry and nuclear equipment to Iran? The Brits have stood with us. The Russians? What day of the week is it?
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