Georgia officially charged four Russian servicemen with espionage Friday after releasing one soldier in the night and identifying a sixth man detained on Wednesday as a Georgian citizen. He will now stand trial for treason along with 10 other men.
Senior members of United Russia, known as "the party of power" for its close links with the Kremlin, denounced Georgia for the arrest of the Russian officers, and called for tough action to be taken to bring pressure to bear.
Yury Volkov, a deputy speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, said the measures against Georgia could comprise diplomatic action and economic sanctions, including the freezing of bank accounts, and suspending or annulling business contracts.
"The current Georgian leadership has consistently displayed an intolerable affinity for conflict in international affairs that borders on paranoia," said the parliamentarian, who is a member of the Kremlin-backed majority party, United Russia.
On Thursday, Nino Burdzhanadze, the speaker of Georgia's parliament, told a news conference: "International law does not recognize economic sanctions that are imposed in response to the detention of foreign citizens on suspicion of espionage."
But Lyubov Sliska, the first deputy speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma, echoed her parliamentary colleague by saying the Georgian leadership has gone too far.
"All these demonstrations - the arrest of the opposition earlier, and now the arrest of Russian officers for alleged spying - are ruthless and unacceptable for any European state."
Georgia had accused Moscow of imposing an economic blockade even prior to the current standoff after Russia imposed a ban on Georgian mineral water and wine in the first half of the year.
President Mikheil Saakashvili also claimed Moscow engineered a major blackout in the capital and its surrounding areas at the end of winter, and attacked Russia as an "unreliable" energy supplier at a time when questions were being raised in Europe over Gazprom's handling of a price dispute with Ukraine.
Military action
With Russia evacuating non-essential embassy staff from Tbilisi, and its ambassador recalled to Moscow for consultations, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov sought to play down fears that the dispute with Russia could end in war, though he did accuse Tbilisi of seeking to settle its long-standing conflicts with two breakaway regions militarily.
"We always explain to our partners that Russia is being accused of wanting to annex some Georgian territories," said Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister. "We do not want and have no plans to annex anything. We want 'stalled conflicts,' not only in the Caucasus but also in the Balkans and Cyprus, to be resolved under similar and comprehensive rules and standards."
Speaker of the parliament's upper house Sergei Mironov said: "I have a feeling that Georgia intends to solve the problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia militarily," adding that he is inclined to think Georgia's move was only a pretext.
"Espionage is either a load of bull or a peculiar pre-emptive strike on Russia," Sergei Mironov said. "Georgia is trying to solve its problems at Russia's expense and is just provoking us."
Ivanov echoed that view when talking to journalists after meeting with his NATO counterparts in Slovakia. He said Tbilisi was looking to use force against breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but that Moscow opposed it because 90% of their populations hold Russian passports.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he said Georgia's record expansion of its army in 2006 and increased weapons purchases represented a source of anxiety.
""We are concerned over Georgia's policy of stepping up arms purchases," he said
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also called on Russia and Georgia to take a restrained approach to the affair.
"This is, of course, a bilateral issue between Georgia and Russia, and NATO does not have a direct role. There was a call [by me] for moderation and de-escalation," he said.
At least one senior member also spoke out against letting the situation slide toward military operations, although the pugnacious leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, evoked the specter of the Cold War to explain the crisis.
"I think the Georgian leadership is provoking not only separate incidents, but a new war in the Caucasus, which is eagerly sought by the American secret services in order to establish U.S. influence in the region forever," his party quotes Zyuganov as saying. "A dirty and foul provocation has been arranged against Russia."
Kremlin-linked Sergei Markov, director of the Moscow-based Institute for Political Studies, said it was necessary to explain to Europe that a war was looming and that Europe and the U.S. will be responsible if one erupts, because Saakashvili cannot take a single step without consulting his Western partners.
"Saakashvili is dreaming of a conflict with Russia, but he must be stopped, which is why the response must be asymmetrical."
Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Duma's International Affairs Committee, was less expansive, but also urged restraint.
"A military solution must be ruled out," he said.
He described the charges brought against the Russian officers as "fictitious and politicized" and said the Georgian leadership staged "a political show of some sort" to divert public attention from domestic problems and its own inefficiency.
"Frankly speaking, I cannot imagine what to spy for in Georgia," said Alexander Konovalov head of the Moscow-based Institute of Strategic Analysis.
Evacuation
A total of 79 people aboard two Russian Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft landed outside Moscow Friday evening, the emergencies ministry said.
Earlier, the head of the Russian military contingent in the Caucasus, Andrei Popov, said: "Twenty-eight family members of the Group of Russian Forces servicemen, with 12 adults and 16 children, aged one and a half to 16, have left for Moscow."
Ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko was also on one of the planes after being recalled to Moscow for consultations.
Prior to leaving Georgia, he told journalists: "The actions of the Georgian authorities are an insult to Russia. We will not tolerate such treatment. Russia must be respected, and the Georgian side will have to apologize to Russia and to its citizens."
"We demand the immediate release of the Russian military servicemen, who are innocent," he said. "We demand an apology to Russian citizens and Russian servicemen. I am absolutely convinced that all the materials presented as alleged evidence of wrongdoing have been falsified. The footage is shoddy work and will not convince anyone that these people were spying in Georgia."
He said Russian diplomats and their families remaining in Georgia will be transferred to Russia by sea in the near future.
