RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN SPY SCANDAL ‘IRRELEVANT TO ARMENIA’
By Emil Danielyan and Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 28 2006

Armenia distanced itself Thursday from the latest upsurge in
Russian-Georgian tensions that has been triggered by the arrest of a
group of Russian military officers for alleged spying which Georgia
says was coordinated by Russian intelligence agents in Yerevan.

Georgian authorities said on Wednesday that they detained four GRU
(Russian military intelligence) officers as well as 11 Georgian
citizens suspected of involvement in an alleged Russian plot against
the pro-Western government in Tbilisi. Georgian Interior Minister
Vano Merabishvili said they "acted under the leadership from Yerevan"
of a top GRU officer whom he identified as Anatoly Sinitsyn.

Moscow angrily rejected the accusations, demanding an immediate release
of its citizens. Reuters reported that Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
denounced as a "complete outrage" Georgia’s action which he said had
also included the beating of a Russian officer and six soldiers in
a separate incident in the Black Sea port of Batumi.

Officials in Yerevan insisted that Armenia, Russia’s main regional
ally, bears no responsibility for the acrimonious scandal. "We have
nothing to do with that," the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman,
Vladimir Karapetian, told RFE/RL.

Colonel-General Mikael, the Armenian chief of staff, echoed the
statement, urging journalists not to "jump into conclusions." He also
dismissed as irrelevant the fact that four of the arrested Georgian
nationals are reportedly ethnic Armenians.

"They are citizens of Georgia, and I think authorities in Georgia
will clear things up," said Harutiunian. "I think we will be able to
say something concrete about this issue after finally understanding
what the matter is. It is too premature to comment now."

Asked about the Georgian claims that the alleged Russian espionage
was guided from Armenian territory, Harutiunian replied: "They can
say anything. What they say is their business. But there has to
be evidence."

Other Armenian officials argued that Yerevan has no control over the
happenings inside Russia’s diplomatic missions and military base in
Armenia. None of the diplomats at Russian embassy in Yerevan that
bears the name Anatoly Sinitsyn, an embassy spokeswoman told RFE/RL.

Merabishvili would not say if Tbilisi will raise the issue with
Yerevan, and the Georgian embassy in Armenia declined a comment.

According to Karapetian, the Armenian government has received no
diplomatic notes or other messages from the Georgian side in connection
with the affair.