Russia 'captures Georgian spy'

2008-05-16 17:10

Moscow - Russia claimed on Friday the capture of a Georgian spy allegedly operating in southern Russia to destabilise the region, as tensions mounted between Moscow and Georgia's pro-Western leadership.

Georgia immediately rejected the Russian claims as "absurd".

Russian news agencies quoted unnamed sources in the FSB security service as saying they had captured a 34-year-old Georgian citizen who had been living in southern Russia's war-torn Chechyna region and recruiting among insurgent groups and the security forces.

"An agent has been exposed, a Russian citizen, a native of Georgia," an FSB source told Interfax, adding that the capture "confirms the involvement of Georgian secret services in disruptive terrorist activity in the North Caucasus".

The claim comes as tensions between Georgia and Russia have dramatically escalated, centring on a Russian-backed separatist region of Georgia, Abkhazia.

The Interfax source said the suspect's work was "to organise contacts between Georgian secret services and active members of illegal armed groups on Russian territory" in order to provide financing and "organise armed resistance".

The source also claimed the suspect had links with the remote Pankisi mountain gorge on Georgia's side of the two countries' border, a place Russia has long insisted is an insurgent hideout.

"For fulfilling his tasks the agent several times received financial rewards from Georgia's special services in American dollars. Some of these were handed over in personal meetings, some by... money transfer," the source said.

Tensions rising

The claims were rejected by Georgia's interior ministry.

"It is an absurd accusation. Russia's provocations are becoming more and more aggressive," Georgian interior ministry spokesperson Shota Utiashvili said.

Tensions between Russia and pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have risen as Georgia pursues membership of the Nato military alliance and also tries to retake control of two separatist regions of Georgia that have Russia's backing: Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Tbilisi and Moscow have traded spying accusations before, notably in September 2006, when Georgia arrested four Russian alleged spies.

Amid Georgian hopes of an easing of tensions under new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a Georgian interior ministry official said his country was "astonished that the new head of the FSB has begun his first day with the discovery of so-called Georgian spies".

- AFP