Two Presidents Say They Encountered Gunfire

By: Stephanie Gesselle

Russia has denied claims made that both president Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia and Lech Kaczynski of Poland said they were met with machine-gun fire when they visited a Russian checkpoint boundary on Sunday. According to sources both men were shot at while visiting a checkpoint in South Ossetia. The South Ossetian and Russian authorities denied any shooting had taken place, and said the two presidents intentionally provoked their forces. Grigory Karasin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, told the Interfax news agency that Mr. Saakashvili’s account of shooting was “one more instance of wishful thinking on the part of Georgia”. The secretary of Georgia's security counsel said publicly that Russia “endangered the life of our head of state and the president of a country that is part of the E.U. and NATO.” Fighting in South Ossetia and a second breakaway region, Abkhazia, broke out between Georgia and Russia in August. Russia withdrew their forces recently as part of a cease-fire and this is said to be the most violent violation of the cease-fire since.