Georgia, Poland claim Russian troops fired at presidents (Roundup)

Tbilisi, Georgia - Russian patrol personnel fired shots at a motorcade carrying Polish and Georgian presidents Lech Kaczynski and Mikheil Saakashvili from the airport in Tbilisi to a settlement near the Ossetian border, the Georgian government stated Sunday. Russian and South Ossetian defence officials rejected the claims. Russia's military leadership said that Russian soldiers were under no circumstance involved in the incident. The South Ossetian Defence Ministry called the Georgian claims disinformation. However, the Polish government confirmed the Georgian reports. None of the reports spoke of any injuries. The convoy returned to Tbilisi, reported the Polish Press Agency PAP. The settlement of Metechi was to be Kaczynski's first stop during a visit to Georgia, where he was going to open housing built for refugees of this summer's war between Russia and Georgia. 'We were traveling along a mountain road in the direction of Ossetia. We stopped and didn't make it to our destination, and now we're returning to Tbilisi,' said a PAP journalist who was traveling with Kaczynski. 'We heard shots. We don't know what happened.' A presidential minister told PAP the incident occurred at a spot that, according to a peace plan for the Georgia-Russian conflict, 'should be in Georgian hands,' and that Russian soldiers were, 'at a distance of 30 metres from the president.' However, the whole area has been extremely unstable since the war in August. There are almost daily shootings and bombings in the buffer zones that separate Georgia from its breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, leading to multiple deaths and injuries. It was unclear whether the shots were aimed at the convoy, or if they were warning shots, presidential minister Michal Kaminski told PAP. A Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said the vice-minister, who was along on the trip, heard three shots in the distance when nearing the settlement 40 kilometers north of Tbilisi.