KavkazCenter - Detained officers did work for GRU - former Russian intelligence officer

Detained officers did work for GRU - former Russian intelligence officer

A former employee of Russian secret services specializing on the Caucasian problems was interviewed by the Moscow-based daily Moskovsky komsomolets (MK). The ex-officer said there were no doubts that the detained Russian officers were staff members of the military intelligence (GRU) of the General Staff.

However one should understand that they had not been carrying out in Georgia any subversive activities, the MK source underlined. According to him, "this is a general regional division in Georgia, engaged in gathering of information, as a rule, of openly available one". Its task is gathering data and analysing the situation. "There is no secrets for us in the Georgian army and, consequently, they [the detained Russian officers] could not make anything secretly", the former intelligence officer said. He concluded that so this was a classical provocation performed by the Georgian side.

The newspaper's source predicted an exchange of diplomatic notes and release of the Russian officers and handing them over to Russia. He only expressed his surprise, why till now the Russian side had not made any similar detention of the Georgian employees of secret services in Russia. However, it would occur in the nearest future, he said.

Arrested Russian officers handed over to OSCE, Russia cuts links over spy row

Meanwhile arrested Russian officers handed over to OSCE The Russians were led to an OSCE car that took them to the airport where they were waited for by the Russian Emergency Ministry plane, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Reuters quoted a spokesman [Vano Noniashvili] for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili as saying that today in the Georgian Prosecutor General's Office there was a ceremony of handing over the arrested Russian officers to the OSCE Chairman-In-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht. He, in turn, was supposed to hand over the officers to the representatives of the Russian Consulate in Georgia, then the servicemen had to be delivered to Russia. A plane of the Russian Emergency Ministry landed in the Tbilisi International Airport this morning, Tbilisi-based Imedi television station reported. The move came after a build-up of tension, following the arrest of the Russian officers September 27, leading to a war of words between Moscow and Tbilisi, including a sharp verbal attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian President described arrest of four Russian officers by Georgia for alleged espionage as "state terrorism with hostage-taking", a statement posted on the Russian President's official website reads. Putin made this conclusion following a meeting near Moscow with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council yesterday, the statement says. Putin's comments, made after the meeting of security officials, were interpreted by Georgia's Foreign Ministry as a threat to use military force. An unnamed Russian Defence Ministry source told Russian daily Kommersant in an interview published today that "all diplomatic steps that are usually taken in such strained relations have been exhausted".

"The next action could be the breaking of diplomatic relations and a military operation. Nothing can be ruled out at present", the source said.

Russia said the detention of the servicemen and the charges against them were a provocation. The Foreign Ministry has recalled the Russian ambassador to Tbilisi for consultations. Russia is suspending air, land and sea transport services to Georgia, the Russian Transport Ministry told news agency Interfax today. Russia has put its military bases on high alert in Georgia and withdrawn most of its diplomats since Georgian authorities arrested five Russian officers they accused of spying last week. One was later released, and the remaining four charged with espionage and remanded in custody for two months.

Russian secret services use Armenians as spies in Georgia

Russian secret services use Armenians as spies in Georgia, according to the member of parliament of Georgia, member of the United Nations International Information Academy, Pata Davitaya, news agency APA reports, referring to his conversation with journalists. Having concerned the Russian-Georgian relations, Davitaya declared that there was a complex situation in this area, however, presence of tension in the Russian-Georgian relations and an eventual beginning of war does not suit any of the countries of the Caucasian region. The member of the Georgian parliament confirmed that there were sentiments among Armenians in Georgia about a political autonomy in the framwework of Georgia, APA says. Simultaneously he underlined that "there could be no question about such an autonomy". Those sentiments were used by the Russian secret services that had been using local residents of Armenian nationality as spies in Georgia, according to Davitaya. He also said the problems between Russia and Georgia were intergovernmental and were not connected with relations between the two peoples. Source: AXIS