Police in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, cordoned off the headquarters of Russian troops in the South Caucasus earlier in the day, saying they were conducting a special operation to apprehend unidentified suspects.
"Four Russian intelligence officers and their local agents have been detained," Vano Merabishvili said. "The suspects were conducting illegal intelligence gathering in Georgia."
The minister focused his claims on the Russian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, better known by its Russian acronym, the GRU.
"GRU Colonel Alexander Sava, the leader of the spy ring, and Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Kazantsev have been detained in Tbilisi," the minister said, adding that two other intelligence officers had been arrested in the northwestern city of Batumi.
The Russian Embassy in Tbilisi said it knew about the circumstances of the arrest of two senior Russian officers.
"One of them was arrested when police stopped his car on a street in the capital, Tbilisi, and another was taken from his apartment in Batumi," Ivan Volynkin, an embassy officer said, adding that the fate of the other two officers was unclear.
The Georgian interior minister said that a fifth intelligence officer was believed to be hiding at the Russian headquarters and the special operation, including the cordoning off the headquarters building, would continue until he was arrested.
A duty officer the Russian headquarters said he could see the police cordon from the window but the situation in the building was calm.
"The situation in the building is normal," he said. "Georgian police officers did not enter the building and all personnel are working as usual."
