BORJOMI, CEMENT, PLANES…

"Restaurant" reviews are a characteristic feature of Moscow's gloss magazines. The focus is not just on Chinese, French or Japanese establishments, but also on Azerbaijani and Georgian ones. Talking about the latter, the "restaurant reviewers" point out with regret that they do not have Borjomi and Georgian wine. So you have to eat chicken, satsivi and mtsvadi with Italian and French, not Georgian wine.

Alas, the ban on the import of wine and mineral water into Russia is far from being the most powerful factor that irritates people in bilateral relations, observers point out. What is more, observers in both Moscow and Tbilisi have been talking about a serious crisis in the recent period.

Who is stuck in Abkhaz cement?

At the end of July, Moscow was involved in an unpleasant scandal over the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The website of the authorities of the self-proclaimed "Republic of Abkhazia" posted a sensational report, quoting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Zhukov as saying that Abkhazia will supply construction materials to Sochi. He said that cement factories might be built in the republic to supply their products to the construction site of the Olympic village, and Abkhazia's participation in the Russian programme to prepare for the Olympic Games is based on a simple calculation which proves that it is cheaper to bring construction materials to Sochi from Abkhaz districts rather than from Novorossiysk. Tbilisi's reaction was quick.

Georgian Speaker Nino Burjanadze warned: "Any joint projects between Moscow and Abkhazia which ignore Georgia's interests will not just cause a negative reaction in Georgia, but will also question the correctness of the decision about the venue for the Olympic Games." What is more, Nino Burjanadze said that Georgia might use the negotiations on Russia's accession into the WTO to prevent Abkhazia's involvement in preparations for the Olympic Games. "Georgia has no intention of seeking an additional excuse to prevent Russia's entry into the WTO," she pointed out. However, if Russian investors start building factories in Abkhazia, ignoring the fact that "this is Georgian territory, Georgia will use all mechanisms stipulated by international law". According to the speaker, Abkhazia's involvement in preparations for the Sochi Olympics will worsen Russian-Georgian relations. In turn, the Georgian embassy in Russia issued a warning: "Any political speculation on Abkhazia's involvement in the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi without preliminary negotiations between relevant organizations of the Russian Federation and Georgia will have only a negative impact on stability in the region and might damage the image of the future Olympic Games in Sochi." The embassy stressed that "Georgia supported the idea of holding the Olympic Games in Sochi and hopes that the Olympic Games will further the stabilization of the situation in the region and a peaceful solution to the (Georgian-Abkhaz) conflict".

Moscow immediately issued a denial (though Zhukov himself kept quiet - contractors of the second and third echelons spoke on his behalf), and the scandal was hushed up. But soon came another wave of tension. This time a Russian plane bombed a Georgian military radar installation near Gori, close to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone.

End of flying…

According to the Georgian side, a Russian war plane invaded Georgia's air space on 6 August and fired a Raduga missile, specially designed to destroy radar equipment, at a Georgian military radar installation. Georgian diplomatic missions published radar information which showed that the plane that fired the missile had come from Russian territory.

Moscow's reaction to this was quite reserved - "it is not me, and the missile is not mine". Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov said that the Georgian report about the Russian air strike was "another theatre show which was not performed professionally enough". According to Ivanov, Georgia is trying to disrupt a meeting of the joint control commission to solve the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

Alas, Moscow failed to persuade everyone. The US State Department was one of the first to have spoken out on the incident. An official spokesman for the State Department condemned the attempt on Georgia's sovereignty and described the attack on the Georgian town as a "provocation". Plus, Washington expressed special concern about the fact that the incident happened near the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone. Though the White House made a reservation, saying that they cannot put the blame for the incident on any of the conflicting sides, because they do not have full information about the incident, there is a likelihood that this information will be confirmed as a result of an investigation which involves American experts.

Soon, an international group of independent experts from Sweden, the USA, Latvia and Lithuania said that the plane which fired a missile near the Georgian town of Gori on 6 August had invaded the republic's air space from Russian territory. "The unidentified plane invaded Georgia's air space from Russian territory near the town of Stepantsminda three times. Georgia's air space was invaded by the same plane in all three cases," they said in their conclusion on 15 August. "The experts' conclusion confirmed the information of the Georgian side," a spokesman for the Georgian Foreign Ministry, David Dondua, said. Then another group of international experts - this time from Estonia, Poland and Britain - confirmed that the missile found on Georgian territory was of Russian origin and was fired from a plane that had flown in from Russian territory. "Georgia's air space was invaded three times on 6-7 August by a plane that had flown in from Russian territory," the report said. Experts think that this plane fired a Kh-58U anti-radar "air-to-surface" missile of Russian origin. RIA Novosti honestly tried to find a spoonful of honey in a barrel of tar: Experts do not confirm that the plane which invaded Georgia's air space was Russian, however, Russia, to put it mildly, is not a state that would allow foreign war planes to fly over its territory and fire missiles.

In turn, Georgia's permanent representative to the UN, Irakli Alasania, informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about the course of the investigation into the 6 August investigation. Having informed him about the conclusion of international experts, Alasania asked Ban Ki-moon to call a meeting of top representatives of the group of countries that are friends of the UN secretary-general without Russia's participation during a forthcoming UN session. The UN Security Council did not support the initiative, but soon Tbilisi again accused Russia of invading its air space on 21 August. "During this period of time, Georgian air defence systems registered two violations of Georgia's air space from Russian territory near the village of Omarishara (Kodori Gorge) in the northwestern direction. The altitude of the flight was 4,000 metres, the speed was 470-490 km/h and the depth of the invasion was five kilometres," a spokesman for the information and press department of the Georgian Foreign Ministry said. Tbilisi says that the Georgian Foreign Ministry has sent a protest note to the Russian Foreign Ministry and demanded "an immediate and clear answer". The Georgian side stresses that it is not just a one-off incident. "Russian aircraft have invaded Georgia's air space nine times in the last three months," Georgian Deputy Defence Minister Batu Kutelia said. He said that Georgian air space was violated again for intelligence purposes, which "is a sign of aggression and a demonstration of the fact that Russia is continuing its actions despite the international community's reaction". Moscow, as was expected, tried to deny everything. According to an official representative of the Russian air forces, Col Aleksandr Drobyshevskiy, "Russian planes did not fly along the Georgian border and did not invade Georgia's air space".

Nevertheless, to all appearances, the constant "raids" of Russian aircraft into Georgia's air space have already led to political consequences. Representatives of NATO countries have even resumed talks on the possibility of handing over their own radar data to Georgia. Plus, Georgia has already gained the OSCE's de facto support - the report on the "missile" incident in Georgia will be examined at an emergency session of the organization's permanent council in Vienna. It will be submitted by Miomir Zuzul, the special representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office. OSCE chairman-in-office Miguel Angel Moratinos said at a news conference in Tbilisi that the OSCE's permanent council will examine the report and issue its own conclusion which will reflect Tbilisi's and Moscow's opinion and contain experts' estimation.

And finally, Tbilisi said that a Russian plane had been downed over Georgian territory. In response, Moscow said again that its planes had not flown over Georgian territory and that the Russian side had no idea what happened there. Against this background, Abkhaz separatists tried to step in, saying that they had brought down a Georgian plane. But no-one showed the international community the wreckage of the plane that crashed over Abkhaz territory. Thus, as we can see, the new upsurge in tensions on Russia's initiative, to put it mildly, does not further security and stability in the region.