South Ossetia 'downs Georgian Spy Plane'

Officials in the breakaway province of South Ossetia today said their forces shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane.

Mikhail Mindzayev, South Ossetia's interior minister, said the drone had crossed into South Ossetia from the south, meaning it was from Georgia. The claim was dismissed by Tbilisi, where a Georgian interior ministry spokesman, Shota Utiashvili, said Mindzayev was "seeing things."

Russia this week stepped up its defiance of the west by recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia's two separatist regions. The move was denounced by the west as an attempt by Russia to redraw the map of Europe and in contravention of UN security council resolutions.

As the west hammered away at Moscow diplomatically, the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, today appealed to the five other leaders of an Asian security alliance for unanimous support over Georgia.

Speaking at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Medvedev said that support for Russia would serve as a "serious signal for those who are trying to justify aggression", a reference to Georgia's decision to attack South Ossetia – which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s – and to retake it by force earlier this month.

Russia retaliated by briefly invading Georgia. Moscow has withdrawn most of its forces but some have stayed behind, particularly in the strategic port of Poti. Roundly condemned for invading Georgia and for recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia is looking for diplomatic support in the SCO – from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The SCO was set up in 2001 as a forum for its members to improve regional coordination on terrorism and border security. With most SCO members facing separatist rebellions of their own, outright support for Moscow's actions is seen as unlikely.

"China, which has own separatists, will be the biggest problem," said Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center of Political Information thinktank. "The recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is unacceptable for Beijing."