The UN mission in Georgia backed in a report Monday the ex-Soviet state's claim that the drone had been shot down by the Russian Air Force over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. Russia has consistently denied the claims saying the video footage used as evidence was fake.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has called on all sides interested in a peaceful settlement to the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict to alleviate tensions over the drone incident, spokesman James Appathurai said Wednesday.
Following the release of the UN report Tuesday, Tbilisi demanded that Russia make an official apology and pay compensation for the downing of the spy plane. Georgia called the downing an act of aggression, an assessment shared by some Western countries.
Moscow has accused Tbilisi of violating a ceasefire agreement by sending spy planes into the conflict zone, where it has maintained peacekeeping troops since the end of a bloody conflict in the region in the early 1990s.
Abkhazia and Georgia's other breakaway territory, South Ossetia, have been a source of tensions between the former Soviet allies, with Tbilisi accusing Moscow of backing separatism on its sovereign territory. Tensions have also been fueled by Georgia's plans to join NATO.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Moscow recently bolstered the number of its peacekeepers in Abkhazia in response to Georgian troop buildup, but said the increase was still within previously agreed limits of 3,000 soldiers.
