Documents / Official release

State Department UAP Cable 003, Tbilisi, Georgia, October 30, 2001

U.S. Department of State · 2001 · 5 pages · text from the file's own layer

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From the source: Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: 10/28/2001-10/29/2001, Georgia. On October 28-29, there was an incident alleged by the Georgian Foreign Ministry that Russian aircraft had violated Georgian airspace and bombed areas of the Kodori Gorge. Russians denied any of the claims and said that it could have been UFOs. Cable authors note that Russians typically engage in the “bold lie” when they wish to conceal actions.

CQtqflDDHIAL
!UNCLASSIFIED
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1143
INFO AMEMBASSY TBILISI PRIORITY
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY
MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY BAKU
AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
USMISSION USOSCE
SECDEF WASHDC
JOINT STAFF WASHDC
CO fd FIDE fd TI AL JECTION 02 OF 02 MOSCOW 013169
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/29/21
TAGS: PREL, MARR, KCFE, UN, OSCE, GG,RS
SUBJECT: UFOS OVER GEORGIA: STRANGE ENCOUNTERS OF AN MFA
KIND
COfdFIDEffflAL
PAGE 02 MOSCOW 13169 02 OF 02 301754Z
SELEZNEV AGREED THAT BOTH COUNTRIES NEEDED TO DISCUSS THEIR
DIFFERENCES CALMLY AND WORK ON A GENERAL TREATY.
7. -"3'J TEREOKEN DISMISSED PRESS REPORTS THAT DEFENSE
MINISTER SERGEY IVANOV HAD AGREED TO VISIT TBILISI VERY
SOON BUT NOTED HE COULD NOT ENTIRELY RULE OUT A VISIT IN
THE COMING WEEKS. HE CLAIMED THERE ARE PLANS FOR A
POSSIBLE MEETING BETWEEN SHEVARDNADZE AND PUTIN ON THE
MARGINS OF THE NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 1 CIS SUMMIT IN MOSCOW,
BUT NOTED NOTHING IS YET CONFIRMED.
8. -"3'J COMMENT: 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 THE
RUSSIANS WANT TO KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THE GEORGIANS AND THE
CHECHENS IN THE GORGE IN AN UNSUBTLE EFFORT TO PREVENT
THESE GROUPS' MOVEMENT TO ABKHAZIA OR TO RUSSIA. THEIR
OFFICIAL DENIALS REFLECT A TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN PENCHANT TO
AVOID AN AWKWARD ADMISSION WITH A BOLD LIE. AS FOR
GUDAUTA, THE GOR LIKELY IS USING THE CONTINUED PRESENCE OF
ITS 600 TROOPS THERE AS A BARGAINING CHIP TO TRY TO GET
CONCESSIONS FROM TBILISI ON BOTH THE BODEN PAPER ON
ABKHAZIA AND ON CLAMPING DOWN ON CHECH ENS INSIDE GEORGIA.
VERSHBOW
COfdFIDDdTIAL
« END OF DOCUMENT »
Info: TBILISI, AMEMBASSY ROUTINE
!UNCLASSIFIED
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 5 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.