UN: Russia Shot Down Georgia's Spy Drone

When the Georgian government announced that one of its spy drones had been shot down by a Russian MiG, Moscow was quick to shift blame to anyone but themselves. "Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, even the United States," might've done it, one Russian officer alleged. Maybe it was a "well-organized provocation" by the Georgians themselves, he added.

Nope. A United Nations investigation has concluded that Russia was indeed to blame. It wasn't too tough of a call; the drone actually shot video of its own demise, featuring a plane that looked straight-outta-Moscow.

"By examining the available evidence and interviewing eyewitnesses and participants, and by correlating the radar records, the drone's video and maps of the ground, the fact-finding team 'concluded that the video was authentic,'" according to the New York Times.

The team also concluded that the attacking plane was either a
Russian MiG-29 or Su-27, and that it fired an AA-11 Archer heat-seeking missile, which was detonated near the drone by its internal proximity fuse.

...Moreover, the report detailed a degree of military recklessness not previously reported... The report suggested that the fighter pilot had flown close enough to the drone to be recorded because he was near airspace used by civilian aircraft and had to avoid using longer-range weapons.

The paper also notes that "Russia has served as a regional peacekeeper since forces from Georgia... and Abkhazia, a separatist region in western Georgia that receives Russian support.. entered an uneasy cease-fire in the 1990s. The Russians have at least 2,500 soldiers on the ground under a mandate approved by the Commonwealth of Independent States."

The UN report noted that the use of force by any other party, such as a fighter plane scrambled from Russia, is "fundamentally inconsistent" with Russia's role as a peacekeeper and "undercuts the cease-fire and separation of forces regime." It also raised "possible considerations under international law."

...The Russian military, which had claimed that all of its pilots were on vacation the day the drone was shot down - and then that an American
F-18 shot down the drone - again denied a role in the incident.

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