Translated material
Fragments of the diplomatic war
Georgian missile wings failed to convince Russian experts
The missile, discovered on August 6 in the village of Tsitelubani , Gori region, 65 km northwest of Tbilisi, has become the subject of research by foreign specialists. Consensus could not be reached. The conclusion of Russian experts who worked in Tbilisi and at the site of the incident on August 16 and 17 destroys the version of the Georgian side and a group of Western experts about the “Russian trace”. Now Georgia relies exclusively on international support.Russian Air Force spokesman Colonel Pavel Akulenok said: “The Russian group was shown various fragments of the missile. On the compartments that were presented to us, we found traces of mechanical cutting - not rupture upon impact with the ground, but traces of the use of technical means. At the same time, there were traces of rust in the cut areas. The wings of the X-58 high-speed rocket are made of titanium. But we were presented with wings made of a different material. Based on this, we can say that some of the parts belong to the Russian X-58 missile, and some belong to other missiles.” At the same time, the Georgian side did not allow Russian experts to take the remaining parts of the rocket casing to Moscow to conduct thermal spectral analysis and determine the extent of the age of soot formation on them.
Foreign Ministry Ambassador for Special Assignments Valery Kenyaykin, who was part of the delegation working in Georgia, called Russia’s involvement in the incident “imaginary” and proposed to put a “fat end” on this. In his opinion, the authorship may belong to “forces that may act contrary to the position of the central leadership of Georgia.” Let us recall that immediately after the discovery of the missile in Tsitelubani, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili and a number of other opposition Georgian politicians stated that the script could have been written by Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili.
Mr. Kenyaikin called the verdict of international experts about the “Russian trace” “politicized.” According to him, data from Russian civil and military radars and space surveillance indicate that Georgian airspace was not violated by the Russian side on August 6. The ambassador did not rule out that “the missile was not launched, but was assembled on site from different parts.” There is another option: “The rocket could not have been launched, but simply dropped - either from an airplane or from a helicopter. This requires further investigation."
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin called the accusations against Russia “absurd, unfounded and far-fetched.” According to him, the sending of Russian experts to Georgia indicates Moscow’s desire to objectively clarify all the circumstances of what happened. “We are disappointed with the haste with which some countries took the Georgian side and defend a version that objectively does not contribute to the normalization of the situation in the region,” said Grigory Karasin, who suggested “avoiding fussiness in such matters.”
However, the Georgian Ministry of Defense stated that “the possibilities for consultations with the Russian side on these issues have been exhausted,” since they “did not show a constructive approach and practically avoided cooperating with the investigation.” Soon, the special representative of the OSCE Chairmanship (now this organization is headed by Spain), former Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzula, will arrive in Georgia. In addition, as Vremya Novostey was told by the Georgian Foreign Ministry, on September 7, the issue of the air incident will be considered at an informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union. The basis will be the report of a group of international experts (uniting representatives of Sweden, the USA, Lithuania and Latvia), who, even before the visit of the Russian delegation, stated that the plane had invaded Georgian airspace from Russia. The American Embassy in Georgia in a special message called this report “significant and reliable” despite the arguments of Russian specialists.
It is noteworthy that the US Embassy linked the missile incident with the need for a speedy settlement in South Ossetia (according to the Georgian version, the air intruder flew over the unrecognized republic). The Americans proposed increasing the number of OSCE observers in the conflict zone (there are currently 12 of them), as well as establishing international control over the Roki tunnel connecting Russia and South Ossetians, which is now outside the control zone of peacekeepers and OSCE representatives.
Georgian political scientist Ramaz Klimiashvili suggested in an interview with the Alia newspaper that behind the missile story lies Georgia’s intention to take advantage of the situation and “attack Tskhinvali.” And the “Tsiteluban incident,” in his opinion, will allow Tbilisi to trumpet the whole world that “Moscow cannot be an arbiter, since it is an aggressor.”
The Press and Information Committee of South Ossetia told Vremya Novostei that Tskhinvali is very dissatisfied with the position of the United States, which “linked” the Roki tunnel to the air incident: “Our President Eduard Kokoity reminds us in this regard that the United States is neither a party nor a mediator in negotiation process. This kind of tendentious statements only fuels the aggressiveness and hostility of the Georgian side. Before demanding monitoring of the Roki tunnel, it is worth monitoring the Georgian ports where weapons are supplied, including from the United States, or the Georgian radar system on the border with South Ossetia.”