Russia Downs Georgian Recon Plane

(Tbilisi, Georgia) A Russian fighter jet has reportedly shot down a Georgian pilotless reconnaissance drone. If true, this has to be considered just another way that Moscow demonstrates its dissatisfaction at Georgia's ambitions to join NATO.

"A Russian MiG-29 fighter jet shot down an unarmed, unmanned air vehicle which was performing basic reconnaissance over Georgian territory,” Colonel David Nairashvili, commander of Georgia’s air force, told Reuters.

"It’s absolutely illegal for a Russian MiG-29 to be there,” he said.

"The MiG-29 has a distinctive twin-tail marking. It’s a Russian aircraft. Georgia does not possess it, nor do Abkhaz separatists.”

In Washington, a State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said the United States was concerned by reports of the incident and was seeking information from the Russian Government.

Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, is internationally recognised as part of Georgia. It has been controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since a war in the early 1990s.

A Russian Air Force spokesman said the accusation is nonsense. Nevertheless, the video is quite persuasive.