Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Pictured: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is a little pissed off. Ever wonder what getting nailed by a missile looks like from the cockpit of the plane being hit? Check out the video inside…

Ex-Soviet Georgia on Monday accused Russia of committing “an act of aggression” after alleging that a Russian fighter jet shot down an unmanned Georgian plane over the weekend.

Moscow immediately denied the claim, saying no Russian planes had been flying in the region at the time, as the Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin had expressed concern to his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili.

“On April 20, 2008 the Russian Federation committed an act of aggression against Georgia,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told journalists in the capital Tbilisi.

“At 9:53 local time a Russian MiG-29 aircraft took off from the illegally occupied Gudauta military base (in Abkhazia) and downed an unmanned plane of the Georgian interior ministry.”

“At 10:06 the aircraft returned to Russian airspace.”

Vashadze said Georgia had “data from our NATO-standard radars” which prove the shooting took place.

“We see this as a violation of international law,” he said. “Georgia will react through diplomatic channels.”

Russian Air Force Commander Alexander Drobyshevsky denied the incident, telling the Interfax news agency: “There were no flights on April 20, when the Georgian air aircraft was gunned down. Air force pilots had a day off.”

In Moscow, the Kremlin said: “During an examination of the incident with the Georgian unmanned plane, Vladimir Putin expressed his perplexity over the fact that the Georgian side is organising military flights over a conflict zone.”

It said Putin voiced his views in a telephone call with Saakashvili.

Georgia initially denied reports Sunday that rebel forces in its breakaway region of Abkhazia had shot down an unmanned drone, with Georgian officials saying the country did not possess the type of plane.

Abkhaz officials previously claimed to have shot down a Georgian reconnaissance drone on March 18.

Georgia’s allegation came amid spiraling tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi over Russia’s support for rebel separatists in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Putin issued a decree last week promising the separatists heightened support — a move condemned by Georgia as an attempt at the “de facto annexation” of the two territories.

The United States and NATO called on Russia to reverse the move.

The two regions broke away from Georgian control during wars in the 1990s following the country’s independence, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to regain control over the two regions and has long accused the Kremlin of stirring up separatism in order to weaken Georgia and stymie its efforts to join the NATO military alliance.

(AP)