UN Says Russians Downed Georgian DroneMay 27, 2008
Associated Press
MOSCOW - A Russian fighter jet shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane over the separatist Abkhazia region last month, U.N. observers said May 26 in a report likely to bolster U.S.-allied Georgia's claim the Kremlin is undermining its territorial integrity.
In recent months, the government of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has used drones to monitor Abkhazia and the peacekeeping force that Russia has reinforced there. Russian officials denied again on May 26 that they had anything to do with the aircraft being shot down.
Saakashvili's efforts to move the former Soviet republic from under Russia's shadow and into NATO and the European Union have angered Moscow, which is supporting local leaders in Abkhazia and another Georgian breakaway area, South Ossetia.
The West's interest in the dispute is strong because Georgia sits at the crossroads for Central Asian and Caspian Sea oil and natural gas headed to Western markets.
The Georgian drone was shot down on April 20, and a video it transmitted before being destroyed shows a fighter jet firing a missile at it.
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