Russian tension mounts over Georgia
Updated on 09 August 2007
Russia's military chief of staff has denounced an accusation by neighbouring Georgia as a "provocation against Russia".
Moscow denies Georgia's claims that a Russian fighter jet violated its airspace and dropped a missile which left a deep crater in a field close to a village about 65km (40 miles) from the capital Tbilisi on August 6.
Georgia described the incident as an "act of aggression" and has requested a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the matter.
According to the Itar-Tass news agency, Russian military boss Yuri Baluyevsky said: "I am convinced that this is a provocation on the part of Georgia. It is a provocation against Russian peacekeepers and Russia as a whole."
He continued: "Georgia at the moment is in a state of confusion, because if the Kosovo problem is settled by giving Kosovo sovereignty, then Georgia could lose Abkhazia and South Ossetia."
He referred to the future of Serbia's Kosovo province and two Georgian breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are seeking international recognition as independent states.
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