As Weazl Predicted, the Bear Flexes its Muscles, and Warns Moron

Russia escalates Georgia row despite release of 'spies'

· Moscow cuts trade links vital for smaller neighbour
· Putin warns Bush not to intervene in dispute

Tom Parfitt in Tbilisi
Tuesday October 3, 2006
The Guardian

Russia launched a barrage of sanctions against Georgia last night despite its neighbour's decision to return four Russian soldiers after their arrest in a spy scandal threatened to spark armed conflict between the two former Soviet states.

The four alleged military intelligence officers were set free in a humiliating public ceremony in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, yesterday. They were handed over to the chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Karel De Gucht, before flying home on an emergencies ministry aircraft sent from Russia to collect them.

The men's arrest last week caused a diplomatic spat that saw Moscow recall its ambassador to Tbilisi and scores of diplomats and their families from Georgia. Russian forces stationed at two Soviet-era bases in Georgia announced a shoot-to-kill policy in case of attack.

Georgia's pro-western president, Mikhail Saakashvili, told the Guardian he had chosen to free the officers to demonstrate his country was "flexible, open-minded and cooperative, rather than locking [the men] up in our local investigation".

He insisted the men were guilty of spying and subversion, urging Russia to recognise that Georgia "cannot be treated as the back yard of some kind of re-emerging empire".

But the officers' release, after talks between Mr Saakashvili and Mr De Gucht in the capital over the weekend, drew little thanks from Russia, which had accused Georgia of state terrorism over the arrests.

As the four officers were set free, Moscow announced it was suspending all air, road, rail, sea and postal links with its southern neighbour, which is heavily reliant on trade ties with Russia. Boris Gryzlov, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, said his legislators would consider amendments to ban banking operations with Georgia.

Mr Saakashvili said the embargo was "the most uncivilised form of pressure imaginable", but vowed that Georgia's economy would survive by finding new markets in Europe.

At a joint briefing with the president, Mr De Gucht also condemned the sanctions, saying isolation was not the answer. "I explicitly call on the Russia side for gestures to decrease tension rapidly."

The four military officers, who had allegedly sought information from paid informers on Georgian troop movements and faced up to 20 years in prison, were let go shortly afterwards in a carefully choreographed display outside the prosecutor's office in Tbilisi.

The men, dressed in civilian clothes and clutching plastic bags containing their possessions, were brought to the scene in separate cars. Police marched them past ranks of television cameras and reporters. Their handcuffs were removed and they were halted in front of a clerk who read a deportation order to each officer. The four were then whisked away to the airport.

Analysts had predicted the crisis would defuse quickly if the soldiers were freed but Moscow seemed in no mood for compromise.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, discussed the situation in a telephone conversation with his US counterpart, George Bush, yesterday, stressing the "unacceptability and danger of any actions by third nations that could be interpreted by the Georgian leadership as an encouragement of its destructive policy", an apparent reference to US support for Tbilisi.

Relations between Russia and Georgia took a downward swing in January 2004 when Mr Saakashvili, a US-educated lawyer, came to power on the back of the "rose revolution", angering Moscow by promising a turn towards Nato and the west.

Since then relations have soured further. Russia raised the price of natural gas supplies to Georgia in January. Three months later Moscow introduced a ban on Georgian wine, one of the country's chief exports.

Relations have been constantly aggravated by disputes over Georgia's two separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both supported by Russia.

Original article posted here.