Georgia hands over 'spies'
2006-10-02 17:32
Tbilisi - Georgia on Monday handed over to
international mediators four Russian army officers whose arrest
on spying charges triggered the worst crisis in years between
the ex-Soviet neighbours.
As the handover was going ahead, Moscow ignored
international appeals for a similar goodwill gesture and
announced it would cut air, sea and land links between the two
countries, alleging unpaid debts and safety violations.
At a ceremony in the courtyard of Georgia's
prosecutor-general's office, the four Russians were told they
were being deported for spying.
They were then driven off in
vehicles of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE), said a Reuters reporter at the scene.
'Enough is enough'
A Russian emergencies ministry aircraft was waiting on the
tarmac at Tbilisi's airport to take the men home.
"The message to Russia is: 'Enough is enough'," Georgian
president Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters at the ceremony,
which was conducted mostly in English for the benefit of
international media.
"We want to have good relations. We want to have dialogue.
"
But we cannot be treated as a second-rate backyard of some kind
of emerging empire."
Standing next to Saakashvili, OSCE chair-in-office Karel
De Gucht called on Moscow to join Tbilisi in agreeing a meeting
"at the highest level" to defuse the crisis.
Severing transport
links would not help matters, he added.
Russia's railways operator said trains would stop running to
Georgia from Tuesday and Russia's head of air traffic control
Alexander Neradko said "from 00:00 on October 3 Moscow time air
links between Russia and Georgia will be ceased".
Severing transport links could cause severe hardship in
Georgia, a small mountainous republic of five million people
which depends heavily on its former Soviet master for trade,
energy, power and remittances.
Soviet empire
Saakashvili dismissed the Russian moves, telling reporters
he would not stand for Moscow bullying his country.
"The rules of the game should change," he said.
"It's no
longer the Soviet empire and we are no longer a rebellious
nation that is rebelling against its central government.
"We are
an independent and free nation and should be respected as such."
The handover did not mean Tbilisi was exonerating the
Russian officers, he added.
"I want to make it very...clear. We
have a very solid case of espionage, subversion, trying to
destabilise my country."