Georgia accuses Russia of firing missile at village

Georgia accused Russia yesterday of firing a guided missile into its territory near a village about 65 kilometres west of its capital, but Moscow denied any involvement.

Georgia's Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said the missile was launched by jets that crossed the border from Russia in an "act of aggression". In Tbilisi, Russia's ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry where he was handed a note of protest.

The missile did not explode, instead burrowing into a field of corn and potatoes near the village of Tsitelubani, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. An interior ministry official said it would have caused a "disaster" if it had detonated.

The incident re-ignited tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow that have lurched from one crisis to another since Georgia elected pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili in 2004.

He has assertively pulled his small ex-Soviet country out of Russia's orbit.

Russia's air force said it had made no sorties over the area and said Tbilisi had produced no proof of its involvement.

Mr Merabishvili said radar had picked up two Su-34 jets flying from Russia on Monday evening. He said one had fired an air-to-surface missile.

"I assess this fact as an act of aggression carried out by planes flown from the territory of another state," he told Reuters.

In Tsitelubani, a Reuters correspondent saw a missile embedded in a crater around five metres deep. Fragments of missile fins and other debris, some with Cyrillic writing on them, had been gathered into piles near the crater.

Some analysts speculate that a row with Georgia could play into the hands of cliques inside the Kremlin jostling for position ahead of the 2008 presidential election, when President Vladimir Putin is to step down.

But Russian officials have said in the past that Georgia itself stages "provocations" to stir up conflict with Moscow and distract attention from its government's failings.

Russia's air force said none of its aircraft had been in the area. "Such accusations need proof from the side making them and there has so far not been any. We do not do things like this and we do not plan to," deputy air force commander Anatoly Nogovitsyn said on Russian television.

Eduard Kokoity, leader of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia - a Moscow-backed region which is a few kilometres (miles) from Tsitelubani - said Georgia fired the missile itself to discredit Russia.

"This is a well-planned provocation," Mr Kokoity's press service quoted him as saying.

At the scene, bomb disposal experts worked using a remote-controlled vehicle and an excavator. A few dozen local residents watched from behind a police cordon.

Georgia has accused Russia of launching air attacks before. In 2002, it said Russian jets had bombed another region of Georgia, the remote Pankisi gorge. Relations between Russia and Georgia deteriorated sharply again last year when Tbilisi deported four Russian army officers, accusing them of spying.

Moscow responded by recalling its ambassador and cutting air, sea and postal links with Georgia. Russia also deported several thousand Georgians, saying they were illegal immigrants.

Russia has also banned imports of Georgian wine, fruit and mineral water, which are big revenue earners for Georgia. Though tension was high, there had been tentative signs this year that the crisis was easing.