Russia has blocked a UN Security Council debate over the alleged missile attack in Georgia last week. According to the Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, the incident has to be “thoroughly investigated first”.
Meanwhile, a group of Russian military experts has arrived in Tbilisi to start its own investigation into last week's missile incident. The team is to study fragments of the missile and other debris gathered from the site where the rocket crashed. It includes top Russian Air Force officials as well as representatives of the Foreign Ministry. “The group has arrived to investigate and gather facts about the missile incident that occurred in Georgia last week. The team is made up of experts from the Defence and Foreign ministries. We will start working today and hope this cooperation will help clear up all the circumstances surrounding the incident,” commented Russian Special envoy Valery Kenyakin. The visit by the Russians comes a day after a report from a team of international experts from Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and the U.S. The international team said the plane that fired the missile toward Georgian territory last week came from Russia. Georgia claims two Russian Su-24 planes entered the country's airspace on August 6 and fired a missile, which didn't explode, on its territory. Meanwhile, according to the Russian commander of peacekeepers in the area, Tbilisi ignored reports of an unidentified plane in the area for 14 hours before accusing Russia. He also claims peacekeepers were unable to identify the missile as Georgians rushed to destroy it.