Not the good neighbor

Russia is again bullying a country on its border. This time it's Georgia.

TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia accused Russia of "undisguised aggression" Tuesday, saying two Russian fighter jets intruded on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a house. Russia denied the allegation — the latest dispute between Moscow and the former Soviet republic.

The Interior Ministry said two Russian Su-24 bombers illegally entered Georgia's airspace Monday night over the Gori region, about 35 miles northwest of the capital, and fired a missile that landed 25 yards from a house on the edge of the village of Shavshvebi.

The missile did not explode, Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

"If it had exploded, it would have been a catastrophe," he told The Associated Press. He said experts were discussing what to do with the missile, which weighs about a ton.

The Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to give him Tbilisi's formal protest, calling the intrusion and firing of the missile "undisguised aggression and a gross violation of sovereignty of the country."

Ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko, speaking to reporters after receiving the note, denied that a Russian aircraft dropped the weapon.

A spokesman for Russia's air force also denied the accusations. "Russian aircraft haven't conducted any flights over that area and haven't violated Georgia's airspace," spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said in Moscow.

Relations between the two neighbors have been strained by Georgia's efforts to shed Russia's influence, court Western alliances and to join NATO.

Georgia has long accused Russia of trying to destabilize the country and of backing separatists in its breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which President Mikhail Saakashvili has pledged to bring back into the Georgian fold.

What drives a country as large as Russia, to be so insecure that they fear small neighbors like Lithuania and Georgia? A country of 2.5 million shouldn't be a threat to Russia which has over 140 million residents. Then some say Russia invented paranoia. Look what good its done its leaders. The country may still be Communist if they hadn't felt the need to prop up Eastern Europe as a shield against the west.

What will NATO do in regards to Russia's latest aggression? If I was to make a prediction, little or nothing. Georgia will be deemed insufficiently important to force a showdown with Putin.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, Conservative Thoughts, Yankee Sailor,