Georgia said today, November 5, it had detained four Russian citizens and nine Georgians on charges of espionage in a move likely to trigger a new crisis in relations between the two countries. The interior ministry in Tbilisi said the 13 people arrested were part of a spy ring within the Georgian air force. It claimed the ring passed secrets to Russian military intelligence (GRU) during the 2008 war between the countries.
In Moscow, Grigory Karasin, the Russian deputy minister of foreign affairs, told the RIA Novosti news agency: "Let's wait and see how convincing this political farce will be before we give our commentary."
But another Foreign Ministry source told Interfax: “We are deeply outraged over the detention of Russian citizens in Georgia. We are investigating the situation at the moment. Obviously, it was done ahead of the Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon and the OSCE summit in Astana in order to draw as much attention as possible [to Georgia] and to harm Russia.”
A source in the Russian security services added: “This is the latest invention of Georgia's leadership, designed to aggravate the already difficult relations between out countries.” “Anti-Russian hysteria is gathering tempo in Georgia, and this so-called spy scandal is Tbilisi's latest provocation,” guardian.co.uk reported.
