GEORGIA: Russian officials pull out of Georgia in spy row

Russia began pulling out some of its diplomats and their families from Georgia on Friday (September 29) as the small ex-Soviet state pressed spying charges against a group of Russian army officers. A Russian Ilyushin cargo plane landed in Tbilisi to pick up some of the several hundred people working for Russia in the southern Caucasus country and bring them home. Four Russian army officers, whose arrest by Georgia on charges of spying for the GRU military intelligence arm sparked the current crisis, appeared in a Tbilisi court on Friday. The court has a straight choice between continuing to hold them or freeing them, as demanded by Russia. "From our point of view, the current situation is not favourable; and I am very sorry that the situation such has this has come about. When I was appointed to Tbilisi (as Russian ambassador), I came here with good intentions, and I told the local media as much. My main goal has always been to promote and improve friendly relations with Georgia but unfortunately this has not happened, because of the Georgian authorities' actions." Russian ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko, himself recalled by Moscow, told journalists in the Georgian capital. He told reporters some 100 Russian nationals would be flown out of Georgia on Friday. Police still surrounded Russian army headquarters, focal point of the crisis following the arrest of the Russian army officers. The headquarters controls two Russian bases, relics from Soviet times which are to be withdrawn in 2008. A fifth Russian officer sought by Georgia in connection with the alleged spy ring remained inside the military headquarters. The crisis in Georgia overshadowed a meeting between NATO defence ministers and their Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov in the Slovenian coastal resort of Portoroz on Friday. After months of hesitation, NATO agreed on Sept. 18 to launch talks on closer ties with Georgia leading possibly to membership, an outcome which angered Moscow. "We don't want a row over this, but clearly he (Ivanov) will want to raise the issue," said one NATO source ahead of the meeting, scheduled to discuss fledgling efforts at defence cooperation between NATO and Russia. Russian ministers and media have reacted angrily to what they have described as deliberate provocation from Saakashvili. Apart from recalling its ambassador, Moscow has advised Russian nationals against travel to Georgia, a small mountainous republic of 5 million people. President Vladimir Putin, away in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, has so far not commented publicly on the crisis. Relations with Russia, Georgia's old Soviet master, have worsened dramatically since pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili came to power in the 2003 "Rose Revolution". Saakashvili's pursuit of NATO membership particularly irks Russia. He himself has publicly attacked Moscow, saying it supports separatists who control two regions of his country in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia has suffered serious economic hardship, aggravated by civil war, since independence from Moscow, with power cuts, shortages and unemployment. An estimated one million Georgians work in Russia and send money home, keeping the country very much in the sway of its huge neighbour. Georgia also depends on Russia for gas supplies, giving Moscow another potential lever over its poorer neighbour. The Russian electricity monopoly UES controls the Georgian power grid and two hydro-electric plants. Russia's Kommersant daily speculated that delays in Georgia winning NATO membership had prompted Tbilisi to spark the crisis.

ITN Source | September 29, 2006

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