TBILISI, Sept 30: Russia raised the stakes in a spying row with Georgia on Saturday by suspending a scheduled pullout of its troops from the former Soviet state.
“The pullout has been suspended,” a Russian defence ministry spokesman said in Moscow, referring to a bilateral agreement on a phased withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia, a relic of Soviet times.
The spokesman said the security of Russian troops could not be fully guaranteed when they crossed Georgian territory.
Russia flew about 60 people, including diplomats and family members, from Georgia on Saturday to leave just two diplomats and some guards at its embassy in Tbilisi.
The row, which is also testing Russia’s ties with the United States, erupted on Wednesday when Georgia arrested four Russian army officers, accused them of spying and deployed police around Russian army headquarters in Tbilisi.
The Georgian interior ministry released a video which appeared to show a Georgian man picking out one of the detained Russian officers from a line and saying the officer was a Russian spy who had recruited him.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who swept to power in the ‘Rose Revolution’ in 2003, has irked Russia by preaching closer ties with the United States and European Union, and pressing for admission to NATO.
At the United Nations, the United States and Britain objected to a Russian draft Security Council statement that would have rebuked Georgia’s ‘provocative’ actions and its stationing of troops in the breakaway Abkhazia region.
Police continued to surround the glass-and-concrete Soviet-era building of the Russian army headquarters. A fifth Russian officer sought by Georgia on spying charges was inside.
Russian military presence in Georgia has been a nagging irritant to Tbilisi. Georgian sources say Russia has about 2,000 troops in Georgia.
The Russian servicemen are stationed in two bases in Batumi, on the Black Sea coast, and Akhalkalaki, in the south near the border with Armenia. Under the bilateral agreement, they should all be gone by the end of 2008.—Reuters
