GEORGIA / RUSSIA: Russian diplomats depart Georgian capital, police show footage of accused spies

Russia issued the announcement as most of its diplomatic staff prepared to leave Georgia after Tbilisi accused four Russian army officers of spying and sent police to surround Russian army headquarters in the capital. "The pull-out has been suspended," the 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. This was because the security of troops could not be fully guaranteed as they crossed Georgian territory, he said, referring to the spying row. Georgia's interior ministry released a gritty video on Saturday (September 30) purporting to show a Georgian man picking out one of the detained Russian officers in a line up and claiming that the officer was a Russian spy who had instructed him. The row, which is also testing Russia's ties with the United States, marks a further slide in relations between Moscow and Tbilisi since Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili swept to power in the so-called "Rose Revolution" in 2003. Saakashvili has irked Georgia's former Soviet master by preaching closer ties with the United States and European Union, and pressing for admission to NATO. He has accused Moscow of supporting the separatists in two breakaway Georgian regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The continuing Russian military presence in Georgia, numbering about 2,000 troops according to Georgian sources, has been an irritant to him. 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. The Russian announcement seemed certain to raise tension. "We have stopped the pullout of troops according to approved plans for this year,'' said Russian Military Commander For Trans-Caucasus Region, General Alexander Baranov. Georgia's Foreign Ministry urged Russia on Saturday to postpone planned military exercises on the Black Sea off the Georgia coast. But in Moscow, the Defence Ministry said no special military exercises were planned. 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. Russian officials said a withdrawal of diplomats and their families from the Russian embassy in Tbilisi was continuing, leaving just a skeleton staff. Three buses carrying diplomatic staff escorted by Georgian police were headed for Tbilisi airport where the Russians were expected to leave at 5 p.m. (1300 GMT), a Reuters television cameraman said. Russia sees the Caucasus as its own backyard and regards a push by the country of five million to join the NATO military alliance as a threat to its interests. Georgian police on Saturday continued to surround the glass-and-concrete Soviet-era building of the Russian army headquarters, where a fifth Russian officer sought by Georgia on spying charges was hiding. A total of 83 people, including embassy employees and non-essential Russian army staff, flew back home on Friday (September 29) after Moscow expressed concern for their security.

ITN Source | October 1, 2006

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