The United States has declassified UFO-related documents showing that some “unidentified flying objects” were actually Russian military aircraft bombing Georgia in 2001.
On October 30, 2001, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow sent a classified report to Washington about mysterious aerial activity over Georgia.
In the document, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow stated that Russian aircraft carried out airstrikes on positions in the Kodori Gorge on October 28–29 in northeastern Abkhazia.
Russian Foreign Minister Mamedov denied any involvement by Russian aviation.
The ambassador warned that, if confirmed, the incident could seriously damage U.S.-Russian relations and jeopardize the upcoming presidential summit in the United States.
Mamedov acknowledged that the incidents could harm the upcoming summit, but repeated the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that no Russian aircraft had entered Georgian airspace.
Russian officials also said they had no technical capability to determine whether foreign aircraft had been flying in the area.
The document ends with a sharp assessment from U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, who openly doubted Moscow’s denials and suggested Russia was deliberately misleading the United States.
“It is hard to accept official Russian denials that Russian planes were not involved. To posit that they could be UFOs would be humorous if it were not for the seriousness of the violations. Most likely, Russia was trying to keep pressure on Georgians and Chechens in the gorge in an unsubtle effort to prevent these groups’ movement to Abkhazia or to Russia. The official denials reflect a traditional Russian penchant to avoid an awkward admission with a bold lie. As for Gudauta, the Georgian government likely is using the continued presence of 600 Russian troops there as a bargaining chip to try to get concessions from Tbilisi,” Vershbow wrote.
The document also mentions the situation in the city of Gudauta, where Russia sought to maintain a military presence under the guise of peacekeepers in order to pressure Tbilisi.
The situation in 2001
In the autumn of 2001, groups of Chechen and North Caucasus militants entered the Kodori Gorge together with Georgian irregular forces.
They attempted to push pro-Russian groups out of parts of Abkhazia. Russia tried to stop this effort while unofficially supporting those groups with weapons and military personnel.
On October 28, according to Georgia’s Defense Ministry, four military aircraft and six helicopters violated Georgian airspace through Abkhazia and dropped bombs on mountain routes in the Kodori Gorge.
Russia denied any involvement in the air raids.
In 2006, Georgia once again deployed forces to the upper Kodori Gorge. However, after the 2008 war, Russia established control over the entire gorge.
