Russia also decided Thursday to evacuate some of the staff at its embassy in Tbilisi along with their families, following a series of arrests of Russian officers in the South Caucasus country on suspicion of spying, with some Russian troops allegedly being beaten.
"The decision to recall the ambassador is an internal affair of the Russian Federation," said Valery Chechelashvili, Georgia's first deputy foreign minister.
The official said the Georgian Foreign Ministry had informed the ambassadors of European Union member countries and the United States accredited in the country on the detention of Russian officers.
"Our aim was to provide unbiased information on the latest events. These countries are our friends and partners, and we have nothing to hide," he said.
Six Russian soldiers and officers have been detained over the last 24 hours for alleged involvement in espionage.
"The files reliably show officers of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate personally conducting intelligence activities, personally recruiting Georgian nationals and carrying out unlawful activities," Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said, adding that Georgia had taken into account all international norms during the arrest.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the accusations were "unsubstantiated" and called them "the latest gross attack that confirms that anti-Russian course of the Georgian leadership."
Tensions between Russia and Georgia have been rising in the past few years over the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the current scandal has done nothing to improve the atmosphere.
Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defense minister and also a deputy prime minister, said earlier Thursday that seven other Russian servicemen - a junior officer and six soldiers - had been subjected to violence when their car was stopped in the western city of Batumi on Wednesday night.
But Shota Khizanishvili, a spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, categorically denied the assault accusations. "That did not happen," he said. "Police did not beat up the Russian servicemen."
