Russia recalls envoy from Georgia: Reaction to officials’ detention
TBILISI, Sept 28: Russia on Thursday recalled its ambassador from Georgia over the detention of four Russian army officers on spying charges and ordered the evacuation of some official personnel.
Moscow also told its citizens not to travel to Georgia, raising the stakes in Russia’s confrontation with the small mountainous state of five million people it ran in Soviet times.
“We have demanded the immediate release of our citizens and we will achieve this with all the means available to us,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in televised comments.
Russia acted after Georgia, run by pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili, detained a group of Russian army officers on Wednesday night for alleged spying. Police surrounded Russia’s army headquarters in the Georgian capital.
The crisis came after months of deteriorating relations between Georgia and its giant neighbour. Moscow dislikes Saakashvili’s pro-Western policies— including joining Nato— and his public attacks on Russia.
Saakashvili himself brushed off Moscow’s reaction, describing it as ‘hysteria’.
“Georgia is acting just as any other democratic state would do, for instance Britain, Poland, the United States or any other country,” he said on Georgian television.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said the government had decided to start a “partial evacuation” of Russian state employees from Georgia “due to the growing threat to security”.
“The first flights by Russia’s emergencies ministry are scheduled for Sept 29,” it added.
Georgia on Wednesday night announced the arrests of four GRU (Russian army intelligence) officers and over 10 Georgian citizens.
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told journalists that the Georgian authorities had proof of a spy network and released video footage purporting to show the officers conspiring with Georgian citizens. One showed an exchange of money.
“We will produce evidence to confirm that all detained Russian GRU officers were personally involved in spying, were personally getting secret information, were creating a spy network, were enlisting Georgian citizens and were engaged in other illegal activities,” he said.
Georgia meanwhile maintained a heavy police cordon around Russian military regional headquarters in the east of the city.—Reuters
