Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
September 28, 2006 Thursday

RUSSIAN OFFICERS ARRESTED IN GEORGIA;
Moscow condemns it as a provocation

by Viktor Volodin

Official Tbilisi foments a new scandal in Russian-Georgian relations;
The Georgian patrol police laid siege to the territory surrounding
the headquarters of the Russian Army Group in the Caucasus yesterday
– all of a sudden, and without so much as a warning. They demanded to
see two Russian officers who they said were wanted for questioning.

The Georgian patrol police laid siege to the territory surrounding
the headquarters of the Russian Army Group in the Caucasus yesterday
– all of a sudden, and without so much as a warning. The police began
checking the ID of everyone leaving the building. They demanded to
see two Russian officers who they said were wanted for questioning at
the Interior Ministry of Georgia.

The authorities came up with an explanation soon that they had
exposed "a conspiracy" of the Russian military.

Arrest of four Russian officers by the Georgian police became public
knowledge in the evening. Embassy of the Russian Federation asked for
an explanation and Georgian secret services promptly obliged by going
public. Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili called a press conference
to announce that the Department of Counter-Intelligence had detained
four officers of the GRU (army intelligence) of the Russian General
Staff and 12 Georgians recruited by the GRU.

Merabishvili called Colonel Alexander Savva of the GRU, arrested in
Tbilisi earlier, the chief of the spy ring. Three other officers were
detained – Lieutenant Colonel Dmitri Kazantsev in Tbilisi and Colonel
Alexander Zavgorodtsev and Major Alexander Barantsev in Batumi. "We
want Konstantin Pugachin, who has taken refuge at the headquarters of
the Russian Army Group in the Caucasus in Tbilisi," the minister
said. "The network exposed in Georgia was run by Anatoly Ivanovich
Sinitsyn who is currently in Yerevan, Armenia." Georgian security
structures threaten to leave the headquarters under siege until
Pugachin is turned over to them.

"Special operation to uproot the network continues," Merabishvili
announced and proceeded to identify four "collaborators" by names.
All four men were arrested for "compilation of sensitive information"
and "planning of provocations." "We’ve kept them under surveillance
for a long time and compiled heaps of materials. These people
displayed interest in military objects, defense capacity of the
country, programs of integration into NATO, energy security issues,
parties of the opposition and non-governmental organizations, Defense
Ministry’s procurement plans, and ports," Merabishvili said.
Well-informed sources in the republican Interior Ministry had said
even before the press conference that the Russian officers were
suspected of clandestine arms deals.

There is no need to "push" the Russian troops out of Georgia with the
help of dubious counter-intelligence actions. Under the
Russian-Georgian accords, the Russian military will leave Georgia in
2008. The headquarters of the Russian Army Group in the Caucasus will
be closed as well. Russian Chief of the General Staff General of the
Army Yuri Baluyevsky branded the arrests made in Georgia "lawlessness
on the part of Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili and his inner
circle." "The Russian Foreign Ministry and we are taking steps to
resolve the crisis," Baluyevsky said.

A diplomatic note from the Russian Embassy, delivered to the Georgian
Foreign Ministry, condemns the actions of the Georgian security
structures as a provocation and blames Georgia. "The Embassy and the
command of the Russian Army Group in the Caucasus appealed to the
Georgian Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, and Defense Ministry to
be told the arrested officers’ whereabouts – with nothing to show for
it. The Embassy insists on an immediate release of the four officers
of the Russian Army and removal of cordons around the headquarters of
the Russian Army Group in the Caucasus," the protest note stated.

Russian Foreign Ministry regards the steps taken by Tbilisi as "a
confirmation of the anti-Russian policy off the Georgian
administration." Grigori Karasin, State Secretary and Deputy Foreign
Minister, protested to Georgian Ambassador Irakly Chubinishvili.
Mikhail Grishankov, Senior Deputy Chairman of the Security Committee
of the Duma, harbors doubts concerning the charges of espionage
pressed against the Russian officers. "What espionage are they
talking about. Whatever is to be known about Georgia is long since
known. The GRU is not interested in Georgia," Grishankov said.
(Before election to the Duma, Grishankov was a senior officer of the
Chelyabinsk Regional Directorate of the Federal Security Service.)

Source: Vremya Novostei, September 28, 2006, p. 1

Translated by A. Ignatkin