The Russian Foreign Ministry has slammed Mathew Bryza, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, for his statements and accused him of bias in favor of Tbilisi.
 
Mathew Bryza said during his visit to Georgia that Washington see Russia’s “provocative actions” in respect of Georgia “as working against cause of peaceful settlement” of the Abkhaz conflict.

“This is not the first time when Mr. Bryza demonstrates lack of knowledge of a real situation and real events taking place in the conflict region, as a result of which his judgments, saying the least of it, are less in line of the reality,” Boris Malakhov, acting spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry said on May 12. 

He said that in the light of “unilateral concentration of the Georgian troops at the Abkhaz border and regular overflights of the Georgian unmanned reconnaissance drones in the Abkhaz airspace, the U.S. diplomat all of a sudden questions expediency of certain increase of the level of CIS peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone.”

“It seems that he is not aware of the fact that on April 29 and on May 3 the commander of the CIS peacekeeping forces informed in details the Georgian Defense Minister [Davit Kezerashvili] about the reasons of increasing the strength of peacekeeping troops, including about the scheme of their dislocation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

He also criticized the U.S. diplomat for justifying overflights of the Georgian drones.

“At the same time, besides the reconnaissance activities and fire correction, the unmanned aerial vehicle can carry an air-to-air missile,” Malakhov said.

“The statements of the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State made in Tbilisi and Sokhumi [on May 9-12] are in the line of the U.S. Administration’s efforts to cover up and to shield from criticism those, whom they are actively dragging into NATO,” the Russian Foreign Ministry official said.