Moscow and Tbilisi, whose relations have been tense in the last few years, have become embroiled in a new dispute after Georgia arrested six Russian servicemen in the country Wednesday on suspicion of espionage.
Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili said. "I will state again that the actions of Georgia's law-enforcement bodies were strictly in line with international law. Georgia intends to act in the future in similar situations just like all self-respecting countries, the U.S., United Kingdom and others."
The president said he had already stated that the counter-intelligence services in the South Caucasus nation had information that foreign intelligence services were working in the country.
But he played down a decision made earlier Thursday by the Russian Foreign Ministry to evacuate some staff of its embassy in Tbilisi and their family members.
"There is nothing to threaten them in Georgia," he said. "There is no reason to call them back, no reason for this hysteria."
With no room seemingly left for relations between the two former Soviet stable mates to fall any further, Georgia's parliamentary speaker, Nino Burdzhanadze warned Moscow against looking toward economic sanctions as a means of retaliation.
"International law does not recognize economic sanctions that are imposed in response to the detention of foreign citizens on suspicion of espionage," she told a news conference.
The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the accusations against the servicemen as "unsubstantiated" Wednesday and Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defense minister and a deputy prime minister, said Thursday that Russia would issue an appropriate response to Georgia's actions.
But the parliamentary speaker said Russia should have studied the circumstances that led to the detention of Russian servicemen before making any threats against Georgia.
"It would have been better had Russia thoroughly studied the materials and then made statements," the Georgian MP said.
She said Russia's failure to make efforts to clarify the situation showed that it was either uninterested in the evidence or it was well aware of the truth but had opted for political blackmail.
Georgia's interior minister told reporters Thursday that he was prepared to give media audio and video recordings showing the alleged spies engaged in unlawful actions.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday it has summoned to Moscow its ambassador to Georgia for consultations over the "affair" and that some Russian Embassy staff would be evacuated from Tbilisi on September 29 along with all family members on an Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft.
