Ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday that two Russian fighter jets had violated its airspace and dropped a 700kg bomb, but this had not exploded. Shota Utiashvili, the head of the interior ministry’s public relations department, said that the bomb was dropped on the village of Tsitelubani, about 65km north-west of Tbilisi.
Georgia on Monday handed over to international mediators four Russian army officers whose arrest on spying charges triggered the worst crisis in years between the ex-Soviet neighbours. As the handover was going ahead, Moscow ignored international appeals for a similar goodwill gesture and announced it would cut air, sea and land links between the two countries.
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/ 29 September 2006
Russia began pulling out some of its diplomats and their families from Georgia on Friday as the small ex-Soviet state pressed spying charges against a group of Russian army officers. Nato, which pro-Western Georgia wants to join to the dismay of Russia, urged both sides to show restraint but said it had no clear role to play in helping defuse the row.