Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Georgia Frees Accused Spies, But Fued With Moscow Continues

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Georgia Frees Accused Spies, But Fued With Moscow Continues

    GEORGIA FREES ACCUSED SPIES, BUT FEUD WITH MOSCOW CONTINUES
    Diana Petriashvili

    EurasiaNet, NY
    Oct 2 2006

    In a surprise move, Georgia on October 2 released four Russian
    officers arrested for espionage, and agreed to the inclusion of Russian
    peacekeepers in international monitoring of the Kodori Gorge, a strip
    of Georgian-controlled territory in the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

    Despite earlier contrary statements by Russian military officials,
    Russian President Vladimir Putin has also confirmed that Russia's
    troop withdrawal from Georgia will continue as planned. Nonetheless,
    Moscow's response to the arrests does not promise to soften. The
    Kremlin has announced the suspension of all transportation and postal
    ties with Georgia, while the Russian Duma has announced plans to stop
    money transfers "to certain countries."

    In a televised ceremony late in the afternoon on October 2 at the
    General Prosecutor's Office, Georgia handed over the four Russian
    officers recently arrested on espionage charges to the Organization
    for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The officers, escorted
    by police, were transported in OSCE cars to Tbilisi's airport,
    where a plane from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations
    flew them to Moscow. The decision to hand the officers over occurred
    after talks between Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and OSCE
    Chairman-in-Office Karel De Gucht, who flew to Tbilisi on October 2
    to discuss the spy crisis with the Georgian leader.

    Commenting on the decision to reporters, President Saakashvili stressed
    that the handover represented "a good gesture towards Georgia's Western
    friends," but not a reaction to perceived Russian threats. According
    to the president, the Georgian side has also handed over to the OSCE
    evidence in its case against the arrested officers.

    Four Russian officers and 11 Georgian citizens were arrested on
    September 27 and charged with espionage. On September 29, the Tbilisi
    City Court ordered the officers to remain in pre-trial detention. The
    Georgian prisoners remain in custody. A greatly reduced police presence
    was continuing in front of the Russian military headquarters, where
    the Georgian government alleges a fifth espionage suspect is hiding.

    What the handover means for this officer remains unclear. A
    representative of the Georgian Interior Ministry's press office
    stated that the government believes that the officer, identified as
    Lt Col. Konstantin Pichugin, is still on Georgian territory, but did
    not choose to make an official statement "because of the handover of
    the spies to the OSCE." Russian officials have denied the government's
    claims, and have stated that Pichugin is in "a safe location."

    Prior to the release, the Russian Ministry of Transportation stated
    that it had stopped all air, rail, car, and sea traffic with Georgia.

    According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the ministry also
    announced on October 2 that postal communications between Russia and
    Georgia would be suspended.

    Meanwhile, in the Duma, proposed amendments to existing legislation
    would end all money transfers "to certain countries" in emergency
    situations. "The Duma must react to this situation," Duma Speaker Boris
    Gryzlov said, RIA Novosti reported. He added that "$350 million was
    officially sent [by Georgian labor migrants] from Russia; according
    to non-official data, this amount amounts to over $1 billion." A vote
    is expected on October 4.

    The thousands of Georgians who work in Russia as seasonal laborers
    could also come under scrutiny. Thirteen Georgian citizens, including
    children, have been arrested in Moscow for allegedly working illegally
    in Russia, Rustavi-2 reported Georgian Consul in Moscow Zurab Pataradze
    as saying. The Georgian Embassy in Moscow has reported that deportation
    proceedings against the 13 detainees are in progress.

    Georgian politicians reacted to the news of Russia's transportation and
    postal services ban as fresh proof of a Russian strategy to pressure
    Georgia into letting Moscow have its own way.

    "By acting this way, Russia intends to make Georgia do what Russia
    wants," David Kirkitadze, a parliamentarian from the ruling National
    Movement Party, stated at a news briefing. "Russia wants us to refuse
    to restore Georgia's territorial integrity," he said in reference
    to the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which the
    Saakashvili administration wants to recover.

    One key concession, however, appears to have been made by Tbilisi
    with the announcement of the government's decision to no longer
    oppose the inclusion of Russian peacekeepers among an international
    peacekeeping contingent that would monitor the situation in the
    Kodori Gorge. Late on October 2, the office of Georgia's State
    Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues released a statement that
    said that Tbilisi had agreed to accept Russian peacekeepers as part
    of any international peacekeeping force, after "taking into account
    the opinions of the international community and the parties involved,"
    English-language excerpts published on the Civil Georgia news bulletin
    site read. Responses from Moscow and the de facto Abkhazian leadership
    have not yet been made public.

    Throughout the crisis, the issue of Georgia's relations with the
    breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has continued to
    simmer. On October 2, both Sergei Bagapsh, the de facto president of
    Abkhazia, and de facto South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity announced
    that they would withdraw from peace talks with the Georgians. The press
    service of the de-facto Abkhazian leader issued a statement saying that
    the Georgian side is violating existing peace agreements by keeping
    troops in the Kodori Gorge, while South Ossetia's Eduard Kokoity
    claimed that Georgia has not responded to South Ossetian proposals
    to hold peace talks in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali,
    RIA Novosti reported.

    Both Bagapsh and Kokoity took part on September 29 in a round table
    discussion on economic development in southern Russia chaired by
    Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met separately with Bagapsh to
    discuss the conflict with Georgia over Abkhazia, news reports stated.

    The Russian president's official website listed both de-facto leaders
    as the "presidents" of states neighboring Russia.

    In response to the meeting, the Georgian Foreign Ministry issued a
    statement that argued that Russia had shown "once again" that it "is
    not and cannot be an unbiased and impartial mediator in the process of
    settlement of conflicts in Georgia. This once again confirms the need
    for an immediate change in the existing formats of the negotiating
    process and the peacekeeping operation."

    Meanwhile, Russian officials maintain that their security concerns
    continue. On September 30, the Russian embassy evacuated all remaining
    staff and their families from Tbilisi except for two diplomats and
    a security guard detail.

    The commander of Russian troops in Georgia, Andrei Popov, also
    announced on October 1 that special buses would be used to transport
    the children of Russian servicemen in Georgia to school to prevent
    the students' arrest as spies. "Of course. Why not? They certainly
    could," Popov told Georgian Public Television when asked to confirm
    his worry that Georgian law enforcement would arrest the children.

    In keeping with that tact, Russian President Vladimir Putin has
    accused Georgia of using Stalinist techniques in its arrest of the
    four officers for espionage, describing the act as "state terrorism
    with hostage-taking."

    "It is a sign of the heritage of Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria [a notorious
    ethnic Georgian chief of the Soviet secret police under Joseph
    Stalin] both inside of the country and in the international arena,"
    Putin said in an October 1 meeting with the Russian Security Council,
    Russian news agencies reported.

    "It is absolutely clear that there are attempts to pinch Russia
    as painfully as possible, to provoke it. This should be obvious
    to everyone," Putin continued in reference to the spy dispute with
    Georgia. "These people think that they can feel comfortable and secure
    under the roof of their foreign sponsors."

    In an apparent attempt to show that Moscow cannot be provoked,
    Putin also stated that the troop withdrawal from Russian bases
    in the Georgian towns of Akhalkalaki, Batumi and Russian forces'
    headquarters in Tbilisi would continue. On Saturday, September 20,
    the Russian commander for the North Caucasus, General Alexander
    Baranov, had announced that the withdrawal would be suspended. All
    three military installations were also placed on high alert, according
    to Russian news agencies.

    Responding to Putin's charges, President Saakashvili argued that the
    Russian leader had overreacted.

    "I don't think this is serious... It is an overreaction caused
    by nervousness that they have created by themselves," Rustavi-2
    television reported Saakashvili as telling foreign journalists in the
    Black Sea port city of Batumi. "They have become hostages of their
    own propaganda," Georgian president commented.

    "Some people could consider our action as something that has been
    coordinated by Washington. This is not true. The US State Department
    made it very clear that this is a bilateral issue between Georgia
    and Russia," Saakashvili added. The Russian presidential press office
    issued a statement on October 2 that Putin had discussed the situation
    in Georgia with US President George W. Bush.

    To many in the Georgian capital, problems with the Russian troops'
    pull-out had looked like one of the possible consequences of this
    crisis. Now, however, attention is focusing in other directions.

    At a September 30 news conference, Georgian Fuel and Energy Minister
    Nika Gelauri downplayed the possibility that Moscow would cut off
    electricity and gas supplies to Georgia, as some Russian politicians
    have urged the government to do. The minister told media that Georgia
    is ready to import power from Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran,
    the Georgian television station Imedi reported.

    "We will be able to import at least 50 megawatts of electricity from
    Armenia," Gelauri said referring to a recent meeting in Yerevan
    where Georgian, Armenian and Iranian energy ministry officials
    participated. "We will continue talks to increase this amount."

    Gelauri added that in case of necessity Georgia will import 100
    megawatts of power from Turkey. Azerbaijan, he told reporters, has
    reportedly agreed to supply Georgia with 300 million cubic meters of
    gas this year, a fivefold increase from initially planned amounts.

    Little can be done to prepare for other events, however. A
    demonstration by 20 Russian youths outside the Georgian embassy in
    Moscow continued on Monday, with participants expressing support
    for the arrested Russian officers and carrying banners condemning
    the Saakashvili administration. On September 30, Russian television
    showed footage of a man darting out of the embassy to give a kick in
    the seat to one of the demonstrators being restrained by police. The
    footage has prompted strong protests from Russian media commentators
    and pundits, but has elicited no public response yet from Tbilisi.

    Editor's Note: Diana Petriashvili is a freelance reporter based
    in Tbilisi.
Working...
X