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U.N.
AMBASSADOR FROM RUSSIAN FEDERATION: TALKING POINTS ON AIR INCIDENT IN
GEORGIA FROM UN PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY: 21/8/2007 (MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 21 August 2007 – The
following talking points were distributed today at the United Nations by the
Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin,
at a press conference on the air incident that occurred in Georgia on 6 August
2007:
"The
version advanced by the Georgian side of the air incident on August 6,
2007 in
the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict looks at least controversial, while
conclusions about a “Russian involvement” appear unfounded.
The
Georgian version of the August 6 incident began literally to fall apart when a
group of experts from the Ministry of Defence of
Russia
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, comprising leading Russian Air
Force experts, were working in
Georgia
on 16‑17 August 2007.
1.
Serious
doubts exist as to the reliability of the printouts and the digital copy of
radar data provided by the Georgian side.
These
materials show a clear trace of a “Russian intruder aircraft” crossing the
border, but lack a number of other objects, which at that time were in the air
space of the region according to the information of Russian objective control
(provided to the Georgian experts). Besides, Georgian radars did not reflect
manoeuvres of the unidentified aircraft in the vicinity of Tsitelubani village,
particularly, the turn it made according to the evidence of the eyewitnesses.
First
information regarding a flight of an unidentified aircraft, which dropped some
kind of a weapon, was registered by the peacekeepers in the South-Ossetian
conflict zone at 6.40 p.m. on August 6, 2007. They reported it at 7 p.m. to
Marat Kulakhmetov, a Russian general in command of the Joint Peacekeeping Force
(JPKF) in
South Ossetia
. However, responding to his query, Mamuka Kurashvili, commander of the Georgian
battalion within JPKF, informed at 8 p.m., citing the Chief of General
Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Georgian Air Force, that the Georgian side
had no information regarding flights of unidentified aircraft over the
country’s territory.
In
order to eliminate any possibility of tampering with the data using simple
computer modelling, the actual reliability of the Georgian radar data can be
established with the help of information on the location of the radar that was
following the ‘intruder’. A request of the Russian experts for this
information was denied.
2.
The
Georgian version of an emergency launch in the vicinity of the Tsitelubani
village of a KH-58 missile from a Russian SU-24 aircraft contains a number of
major inconsistencies.
Using
a GPS navigator, Russian experts took the geographical coordinates of the hole
and determined that given the position of the missile shown in images provided
by the Georgian side, it was to follow the course of 330 NW. If so, it could not
be physically launched or dropped from an aircraft following the course
suggested by the Georgian side for the intruder aircraft.
It
is known that the charge did not detonate. While the design of the KH‑58
missile and the technical procedure of its launch from a SU-24 aircraft, which
carries it as a standard weapon, are such that if its engine was started (and
that’s what happened according to the Georgian side), it just could not fail
to detonate. No explosion can only occur in case of an emergency drop when the
engine is not started. There is no third option; and Georgian experts had to
admit it after a thorough explanation by our experts.
Furthermore,
if the missile was operating normally, it could not penetrate the soil at nearly
full length without damage, as the Georgian side claims. The plastic cover of
the warhead was to have been destroyed on impact against the ground. Only the
heavier fragments of the body could remain in the hole, such as engine parts or
those of the warhead.
The
situation is different if the missile was used in an undue fashion, for example,
launched or just dropped from a SU-25 aircraft, which is in service at the
Georgian Air Force. Technically it is quite possible after some alteration of
the aircraft’s weapon hanger system or the missile itself. Notably, during
consultations Russian experts heard from one of the Georgian military men that
the unidentified aircraft appeared to have ejected heat flares while manoeuvring.
Unlike SU-25 aircraft, SU-24 are not equipped with devices that create
decoy targets.
However,
it was impossible to check the version related to these facts as Russian experts
were not allowed to inspect Georgian SU-25s.
3.
What the
Georgian side demonstrated to the Russian experts as remaining parts of the
unexploded Russia KH-58 missile, is, in fact, a group of separate fragments, of
which only three could belong to aerial munitions of this class, and namely
section 4 and two rudders out of four. There is nothing else to prove that this
was a KH-58 missile. The other fragments belong to different kinds of air
weapons, the marking on some of them shows this directly.
Over
2/3 of parts and skin of the alleged missile are missing. The Georgian side gave
no explanation why there were no fragments of two rudders out of four. As to the
central section with the wings, the engine and the warhead, which carries the
missile’s serial number and year of manufacture, the Georgian side claims that
it was entirely destroyed immediately upon excavation from the ground.
The
question arises, what is the reason for such a hasty destruction of this
fundamental evidence?
The
material of the fragments that were presented by the Georgian side as the
remains of the missile’s wings have nothing in common with titanium, of which
alloys the wings of the high-speed KH-58 are made.
Among
the remains of the “missile” there is a small unit with a marking in
English. Such a part could not possibly be installed in a Soviet or Russian
missile as components produced in foreign countries are banned from being used
for them.
Russian
experts have established that the preserved section 4 was separated from the
central body with the help of a metal sawing device with significant corrosion
on the surface of the cut. This makes it obvious that that particular fragment,
which is known to be made of heavy-alloyed steel, was separated from the body of
the missile not on 6-7 August 2007, but much earlier. Our request to make a
spectral analysis of the carbon residue on section 4 to establish when it
appeared was not granted by the Georgian side.
Thus,
the Georgian assertion that they found a KH-58 missile at the site of the
incident does not reflect reality. And the fact that the so-called
“independent international experts” have confirmed this version contradicts
the above-mentioned literally glaring facts and raises serious doubts regarding
either their expertise or their impartiality.
The
question arises how could the separate fragments get to the location to be later
“found” by the Georgian side?
Unfortunately,
the location where the weapon was allegedly found has been brought to a
condition that makes it extremely difficult to establish the truth. For example,
the Georgian side was quick to fill in and level the hole, while examination of
its edges could have given important data to understand what really happened.
As
it was said earlier, the Georgian side very quickly destroyed the only part of
the missile that carried its number and date of manufacture, and now offers only
photographs.
It
is known that during the Soviet period several air force regiments were based in
Georgia
. This kind of missile was available in two of them. Warehouses with air weapons
were built near those airfields storing over a hundred KH-58 missiles. Besides,
in the
territory
of
Georgia
there was a central warehouse with about a thousand of such missiles among
other weapons. All this equipment remained in
Georgia
until December 1992. Thus the missile could come from the Soviet arsenal or
find its way to
Georgia
through a different channel. It is hardly possible, however, to track reliably
this channel due to actions of the Georgian side.
Having
analysed all the information given above, it seems logical to draw a conclusion
that the KH-58 launch in the vicinity of the Tsitelubani village did not occur
the way the Georgian side is trying to portray it.
Fragments of various air weapons were taken into that region and placed
in such a way as to simulate dropping that missile.
Doesn’t
this explain the riddle of a truly incomprehensible carelessness during visits
of Georgian officials, including President Mikheil Saakashvili, who in front of
video cameras looked into the hole, which was supposed to contain at least
several dozens of kilos of TNT.
On
the whole, information and facts gathered by the Russian experts during their
work in
Georgia
on 16-17 August 2007 and the behaviour of our Georgian colleagues make it
possible to state with full confidence that the incident of August 6 was a
deliberate provocation organised and carried out by those in Georgia who are
interested in aggravating the situation.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
~~~~~
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