Russia spy row heats up

2006-09-28 12:51

Tbilisi - Georgian security forces maintained a blockade on Thursday around a Russian military office while Russian officials launched a furious verbal assault on Tbilisi following the arrests by Georgia of four Russian officers accused of spying.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, quoted by domestic news agencies, demanded the immediate release of the Russian officers and said the case should be taken to the UN security council, complaining that "the party of war" was getting the upper hand in Tbilisi.

Speaking from Sakhalin in Russia's far east, Lavrov also lashed out at Georgia's increasingly warm relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), saying it had served only "to intensify the anti-Russian policy" of the pro-Western government in Tbilisi, the reports said.

'Appropriate' response

"There are grounds for the security council to address this problem," RIA Novosti and Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.

Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov meanwhile unleashed a blast of vitriol himself, describing the actions of the Georgian authorities as "completely wild and hysterical," according to several domestic news agencies.

Ivanov warned that Russia could be expected to deliver an "appropriate" response to Georgia and compared the arrests of the Russian officers to 1930s repression by the regime of Josef Stalin, according to Interfax news agency.

Arrests

The angry remarks from top Russian officials came a day after Georgian interior minister Vano Merabishvili told reporters that four Russian officers from the military intelligence service "who were spying in Tbilisi, Batumi and all over Georgian territory," had been arrested.

Media reports in Russia and Georgia said a fifth Russian officers was also later arrested, but this could not immediately be confirmed independently.

Ivanov claimed that six Russian servicemen had been detained and beaten by Georgian police near the western Georgian port of Batumi before being released, but no other Russian officials spoke of this and Georgian officials could not immediately confirm the assertion.

Travel visas suspended

The Russian embassy in Tbilisi on Thursday indefinitely suspended the issuance of visas to Georgian citizens for travel to Russia, an embassy spokesperson told AFP.

"This applies to absolutely all categories of Georgian citizens," spokesperson Mikhail Svirin said.

Worsening relations

Relations between Russia and Georgia have been tense on and off for the past two centuries.

They have worsened dramatically in the three years since the US-educated Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in Tbilisi and vowed to lead Georgia away from Russian influence and toward the West.

Since then, Georgia has become the stage for intensifying behind-the-scenes jockeying for influence between the United States and Russia, though living conditions for most Georgians have changed little since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.

- AFP