The accusations brought a predictably stinging response from Moscow, with the Foreign Ministry branding the claims unsubstantiated and demanding that the officers be released immediately.
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said: "Four Russian intelligence officers and their local agents have been detained. The suspects were conducting illegal intelligence gathering in Georgia."
Russian peacekeepers have been stationed in the zones of conflicts between Tbilisi and two breakaway regions since the early 1990s, and the military contingent has a headquarters in the Georgian capital.
But the minister focused his claims on the Russia'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 western city of Batumi.
The Russian Embassy in Tbilisi provided details of the arrest of two senior Russian officers saying the fate of the other two was unclear.
"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," said Ivan Volynkin, an embassy officer.
The Georgian interior minister said a fifth intelligence officer was believed to be hiding at the Russian headquarters and a special operation, including the cordoning off the headquarters building, would continue until he was arrested.
A duty officer the Russian headquarters said earlier Wednesday evening that he could see the police cordon from the window but the situation in the building was calm.
Moscow reacts
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued an immediate denial of Tbilisi's claims, saying the arrests were unfounded and represented the latest attack made by the Georgian government on its peacekeeping missions in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"The Georgian authorities are creating obstacles to the work and living conditions of Russian servicemen in Georgia despite the commitments they have undertaken," a ministry statement said. "They have put forward unsubstantiated accusations. The number of arrests of Russian officers from the Russian Group in the South Caucasus made by the Georgian authorities on September 27 is the latest gross attack that confirms that anti-Russian course of the Georgian leadership."
Relations have been tense since West-leaning Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in Georgia on the back of the 2003 "rose revolution." Georgia has accused Russia of meddling in its internal affairs, particularly with regard to the two breakaway regions and energy supplies, while Russia slapped a ban on mineral water and wine coming from its southern neighbor over health concerns.
Parliamentarians in Georgia have demanded the pullout of Russian peacekeepers from the conflict zones, accusing the country of supporting separatists, a charge Moscow has repeatedly denied.
Today's arrests followed the detention in February of three Russian soldiers in South Ossetia over visa problems after they sought to investigate a road traffic accident involving a Russian military truck that led to hundreds of armed Georgians arriving at the scene.
Russian diplomats and lawmakers reacted angrily then and today the Russian Embassy in Georgia also said it had delivered a note of protest to the Georgian Foreign Ministry demanding the release of the Russian servicemen and that the cordon around the military contingent's headquarters be lifted.
The embassy statement said the detention was "clearly an unfriendly act [staged by] those people who do not want an improvement in Russian-Georgian relations."
"Despite the inquiry by the Embassy and the headquarters of the Russian troops in the South Caucasus with the Georgian foreign, defense and interior ministries, the whereabouts of the Russian officers remain unclear," the embassy statement said.
Withdrawal
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the detained officers had been conducting routine work to ensure the withdrawal of military hardware and troops from two Soviet-era bases in the South Caucasus country.
"Russian servicemen in the Russian Group in the South Caucasus in Georgia are ensuring the withdrawal of Russian military bases under the relevant Russian-Georgian agreement," the ministry said in a statement. "The Russian side is precisely fulfilling its commitments in line with bilateral agreements. At the same time, our military officers are constantly subjected to provocations from the Georgian side."
Under an agreement signed by Russia and Georgia on March 31, Russian troops and military hardware are to leave the bases in the southern city of Akhalkalaki and Batumi by 2008. In September, Russia said the withdrawal was proceeding smoothly and could be completed ahead of schedule, but did not specify the date.
