Kavkaz

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday denied a claim by Georgia it had shot down an unmanned Russian spy drone over its territory.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia said on Tuesday it had shot down a small Russian reconnaissance drone over Georgian territory just south of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met Tuesday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss recent developments in the region.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 17 (UPI) — Russian warships will stay on patrol in the Black Sea until all U.S. vessels leave the coastal area off the Republic of Abkhazia, a Russian official said.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 17 (UPI) — The Russian envoy to NATO suggested Wednesday the United States is planning to attack Iran through Georgia.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed treaties with Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia on Wednesday that commit Moscow to defend the breakaway regions from any Georgian attack.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A visit to Georgia by senior NATO officials this week was anti-Russian and showed the alliance is driven by Cold War-style thinking, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the Caucasus does not need NATO interference in the region in the wake of the recent conflict in Georgia.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to offer a collective strategy to establish stability and security in the Caucasus, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian prosecutors said on Tuesday they are to check safety standards at national carrier Aeroflot after a plane operated by one of its subsidiaries crashed killing all 88 people on board.