Six men were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of spying. Four Russian officers were officially charged Friday morning and one was released during the night. The Georgian Interior Ministry said Friday the sixth man was a Georgian rather than Russian as originally thought.
Lyubov Sliska, the first deputy speaker of the State Duma, said, "All these demonstrations - the arrest of the opposition earlier and now the arrest of Russian officers for allegedly spying - are ruthless and unacceptable for any European state."
A number of members of Georgia's political opposition were arrested in early September for allegedly preparing a coup.
Sliska said the Duma could discuss a draft resolution on Georgia, which has been on bad terms with its former Soviet stable mate over its two breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, on October 4. Russia has had peacekeepers stationed in the zones of the conflicts since they erupted in the early 1990s, but Georgia's parliament has been seeking to remove them.
The deputy speaker, a member of ruling party United Russia, said besides considering sanctions over the current events, Russia could recall its previous claims against Georgia. For example, the Pankissi Gorge in Georgia, which borders on Chechnya is said to have housed terrorist training camps.
"Under the pretext of cracking down on alleged Russian espionage, Georgia is drawing attention away from preparations for a number of terrorist attacks expected to be perpetrated from the Pankissi Gorge," she said.
She said Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was inconsistent and added that she would not be surprised to see him in Moscow again soon speaking about good-neighborly relations between the countries.
Saakhashvili earlier in the year accused Moscow of engineering a blackout in Tbilisi and then was vociferously critical of a Russian decision to ban Georgian mineral water and wine - two of its biggest export items - over health concerns. Later appearances before reporters with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after talks seemed to be held in a convivial atmosphere.
The Russian deputy speaker's remarks followed comments made Thursday by the speaker of Georgia's parliament in response to calls from some Russian politicians for economic sanctions against Georgia.
"International law does not recognize economic sanctions that are imposed in response to the detention of foreign citizens on suspicion of espionage," Nino Burdzhanadze told a news conference.
Burdzhanadze said Russia should have studied the circumstances that led to the detention of Russian servicemen before making official threats against Georgia.
"It would have been better if Russia thoroughly studied the materials before making 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.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was recalling its ambassador to Tbilisi for consultations and was evacuating some embassy staff and all family members September 29 over safety concerns.
