GEORGIA: Georgian President Mikhail Saakahsvili says spying case against Russian officers "well founded", as OSCE calls on both sides to defuse tesnions

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said on Monday (October 2) his country had a strong case against four Russian officers accused of spying activities in the country. "The accusations (against Russian officers) - we have a very well founded case. It is a very solid case of espionage, subversion, and trying to destabilise my country," Saakashvili told reporters at a joint news conference with OSCE chairman-in-office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht. Saakashvili added he wanted Goegia and Russia to have good relations based on mutual respect. "The message of Georgia to our great neighbour Russia is: 'Enough is enough; we want to have good relations, we want to be constructive, we want to have dialogue, but we cannot be treated as a second rate backyard of some kind of re-emerging, in the minds of some politicians, of some kind of re-emerging empire," he added. De Gucht called on Russia to match Georgia and take steps to decrease tension caused by the crisis over the arrest of the four Russian officers. "As chairman-in-office, I am grateful to the President of Georgia, for his goodwill gesture to accept the OSCE offer to resolve this issue, which by the way was agreed on last Saturday, and which I hope will reduce tension. I also call and explicitly call on the Russian side to respond in a similar way with gestures to decrease tension rapidly. I strongly believe in the territorial integrity of Georgia, and I believe that the basic principles of international law should be respected and I call on both sides to abstain from future provocations and threats of force." He also called on Moscow to re-establish transport links with Georgia which earlier Russia said were being suspended. Georgian authorities handed over the four Russian army officers accused of spying to mediators from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a Reuters reporter at the scene said. At a ceremony in the courtyard of Georgia's Prosecutor-General's office, the four were seated in OSCE vehicles which then drove off. They were expected to fly to Russia later on Monday.

ITN Source | October 2, 2006

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