MOSCOW CRIES FOUL AS GEORGIA ARRESTS FOUR RUSSIAN ‘SPIES’
Agence France Presse — English
September 27, 2006 Wednesday 7:46 PM GMT
Four Russian officers suspected of spying were arrested Wednesday
in Georgia, sparking furious demands in Moscow for their immediate
release.
"Four Russian officers from the military intelligence service (GRU)
and 12 citizens of Georgia who were spying in Tbilisi, Batumi and
all over Georgian territory were arrested in a special operation,"
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told a press briefing.
Merabishvili added that the Georgian authorities wanted to question a
fifth Russian officer, who the Georgian authorities fear may attempt
to flee the country via "diplomatic channels."
Moscow reacted furiously to the news with the Russian foreign ministry
calling for the "immediate release" of the four and accusing Tblisi
of an "anti-Russian policy."
The ministry said in a statement that it had called in Georgia’s
ambassador to Russia and "passed him a note demanding that the Georgian
authorities release the Russian officers immediately."
The head of Russia’s armed forces, General Yuri Baluyevski, reacted
with equal anger, accusing Georgian Defence Minister, Iraki Okruachvili
of acting "arbitrarily," interfax reported.
The foreign ministry statement added that the Georgian accusations
against the Russian soldiers were "baseless" and constituted a
"brutal act showing that Georgia’s leaders are carrying out an
anti-Russian policy."
On Wednesday evening, several hundred police vehicles were seen
surrounding the Tbilisi headquarters for Russian military bases that
cover Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Georgian authorities are understood to believe the fifth officer
they want to question may be hiding in the building.
Tblisi suspects the five officers of gathering information on Georgia’s
military capacity, its energy resources and on NATO-run programmes
in the country, Merabishvili told journalists.
Two of the arrested officers were lieutenant colonels, who were
apprehended in Tblisi.
The other two, the captain of a frigate and another lietenant colonel,
were arrested in Batumi, western Georgia, where Russia has a military
base.
The espionage activites had been going on for "a number of years,"
Merabishvili said.
The interior minister added that the 12 Georgians arrested with the
Russian "spies" were accused of "high treason".
The officers are also accused of having been "implicated" in a bomb
attack in the town of Gori, 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Tblisi,
which killed three police officers and injured 23 other people.
Relations between Moscow and Tblisi have detriorated steadily since
the January 2004 election of pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Saakashvili wants his country to join NATO and also wants to bring
two pro-Russian breakaway regions of Georgia – Abkazia and Southern
Ossetia – under Tblisi’s control once more.
Georgia has also been demanding for several years that Russia dismantle
its two military bases in the country — aside from the complex in
Batumi it has another base in Akhalkalaki, southern Georgia.
The bases were set up in the 1990s to help put an end to fighting
between Tblisi and the two rebel provinces. Under the terms of a 2005
deal between Moscow and Tblisi they are supposed to be dismantled
in 2008.
Saakashvili was in the Kodori gorges region on Wednesday, an area
near to Abkazia. During his visit he promised "to begin the process
of returning Abkazia" to Georgia.
Georgia was formerly part of the Soviet Union.