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Motorcade of Georgian and Polish presidents under fire

24 November 2008 08:18 (UTC +04:00)

Kaczynski arrived in Georgia to attend celebration of 5th anniversary of the â€œRevolution of Rosesâ€ and he moved from the airport directly toward the refugee camps of Georgian people who were forced to leave their homeland in August events. One of the Polish ministers announced live on TV that the motorcade of the presidents was fired by the Russian militaries near the checkpoint of Russian troops. â€œThe Russian militaries fired at least for three times, but the President didnâ€™t lose his calmâ€.
Saakashvili and Kaczynski didnâ€™t suffer. There were 5-8 cars in the motorcade. After the firing the presidents changed the car. The Polish embassy in Tbilisi also confirmed the fact. It was not clear yet who opened fire. Saakashviliâ€™s spokesman also said the motorcade was fired and blamed the Russian militaries of firing at the presidentsâ€™ convoy.
The Georgian and Polish presidents also made announcement on the incident. At the joint briefing Kaczynski called the firing of their convoy as a â€œviolation of Medvedev-Sarkozy peace planâ€. The Polish president said Russian talks were heard from the direction of firing.
Saakashvili in his turn , said that he did not want to put his counterpart under threat and blamed Russian servicemen for developments.
Separatist South Ossetia refused reports on that they fired from their positions. Headquarters of Russian peacekeepers in Tskhinvali also denied information.
Russian Defense Ministry spread information on developments. Representative of the Ministry refuted reports on firing at motorcade of Presidents and assessed it as diversion.
Russian Foreign Ministry disproved the reports as well. Grigory Karasin, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister assessed the developments like that Georgian side presented their wishes as reality.
Boris Attoyev, Chairman of Committee for State Security of separatist South Ossetia confirmed the information.
â€œ30-car motorcade of the Presidents approaching to the check point wanted to pass the border. The border guards did not let them pass the border. Several cars wanted to abolish obstacles, but they were not allowed. They were informed that their acts are illegal and after that the motorcade directed to Tbilisi. The border guards did not fire on them,â€ he said.