Russian fighter bomber - Follow up

A few days back I wrote about the suspected Russian fighter bomber that is said to have dropped a missile in Georgia. See 'Russian or not - the fighter bomber?'.

Russia reports their disappointment in how the international Group of Experts inspecting the incident seem to have taken the Georgian side. Russia suspects that Georgians have damaged parts of the missile to prevent its identifying.


I must correct my statement in the previous post: the plane was not identified to have been Russian. Instead it was found that an unidentified aircraft entered Georgian airspace three times during the day. - One might wonder, of course, if Russian air control should be aware of, and identify, any military aircraft in their airspace.

The missile was identified to be a Russian design Raduga Kh-58 (AS-11 KILTER) medium range anti-radar missile, that is used for knocking down targeting radars etc. (See also rockitz.com.)


See the International Group of Experts Report.

Another international group is now inspecting the case. In this group Poland and Estonia are represented. Both countries with which Russia at the moment have very bad relations indeed.


Whatever the truth is in this missile incident, it cannot be denied that Russia has employed exceptional actions in their contact with Georgia: After Georgia expelled Russian officers last year, Russia cut off flight connections to Georgia, inspected Georgian companies in Russia, and discontinued import of Georgian wine and mineral water.

Russia has informed the international community that they do not wish for third parties getting involved with their relationship with Georgia.

Russian or not - the fighter bomber?

Some time ago Georgians accused Russia for their airplane to have entered deep in the Georgian air space and dropping a missile near a village. Fortunately the missile did not go off.

Russia strongly declined all such accusations, and suggested that Georgians had done it all by themselves to falsely accuse Russia.

International inspectors have now done some inspecting:
- Georgians have no fighter bombers strong enough to carry such missiles.
- A Russian fighter bomber has been noticed to enter Georgian air space three times during the day of the incident.

What is Russia's reaction?
They accuse the international inspectors of doing politics.

It all reminds me of the Russian airplanes entering Finnish air space. Russia kept refusing such accusations, even though radar recordings were quite clear. Finally it was agreed that the pilots had erroneously gotten off their routes. Professional Russian military pilots.

Thank God they did not mistakenly happen to launch any missiles...