Russian Air Force Bombs Georgian Village?

The Georgian government (the one in Tbilisi not Atlanta) claims that the Russian Air Force violated its airspace earlier this week and fired a missile that landed near the village of Tsitelubani northwest of the capital. The Russians denied they participated in the event. Reuters published photos of what appear to be missile parts and a hole in the ground near the village. The question is who did it?

Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told Reuters, “It happened yesterday at 19:30 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.” He also said, “I assess this fact as an act of aggression carried out by planes flown from the territory of another state.”

Moscow denies the whole thing. “Russia’s air force neither on Monday nor Tuesday flew flights over Georgia,” Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, assistant commander of Russia's air force, told Reuters. “Russia has not violated the borders of sovereign Georgia.” Russia’s Interfax reported that Georgian Radio Imedi interviewed former Georgian foreign minister Salome Zurabishvili, who said, “I do not rule out that the bombing near Tsitelubani was a spectacle staged by Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili.”

Normally, one would take the Georgians’ word for it given how the Russians have been acting toward their “near abroad” lately. Mr. Merabishvili’s hands aren’t entirely clean, however. The circumstances surrounding the murder of Sandro Girgvliani, head of the United Georgian Bank’s Foreign Department, seem to suggest Mr. Merabishvili’s ministry (and his wife) know more about the killing than appears in the papers.

What this does demonstrate is why NATO and other western power should be cautious about expanding their membership eastward. If Georgia were a member of NATO, as the Baltic States are, there is a genuine chance that this missile adventure (or mis-adventure) could bring the USA and Russia to blows. As dangerous as Al-Qaeda may be, Russia still has thousands of nukes and a chip on its shoulder. Georgia may or may not be innocent in this incident, but does anyone want to bet the future of America’s Georgia (and the other 49 states) on it?

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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