Georgia to hand over detained Russian officers to OSCE

The four detained Russian military officers will be transferred to the custody of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Monday, a Georgian presidential spokesman said.

"Today there will be a ceremony of handing over the arrested Russian officers to OSCE representatives," Vano Noniashvili said in Georgia's capital of Tbilisi.

Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have been increasingly strained since Georgian authorities arrested four Russian officers last week, charging them with spying activities. Russia has recalled its ambassador in Tbilisi and evacuated its citizens from Georgia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his first public comments on the crisis on Sunday, denouncing the arrest as "an act of state terrorism involving the taking of hostages."

Russia has between 3,000 and 4,000 troops at two military bases in Georgia. According to a deal signed last year, Moscow agreed to pull out all the troops by the end of 2008.

Gen. Alexander Baranov, the commander of Russia's North Caucasus military district, said on Saturday that the withdrawal would be suspended as a result of the officers' arrest. But Putin has ordered the Defense Ministry to go ahead with the pullout in compliance with the deal.

Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the lower house of Russian parliament, told the Itar-Tass news agency on Monday that the main message in Putin's Sunday comments "is the readiness to build relations with Georgia as a friendly state."

"If Tbilisi does not hear this signal, does not immediately free the Russian officers, and builds up a hysteric in our relations, all responsibility for these relations will be only with the Georgian side," Kosachyov stressed.

Russia "will do all it can to prevent a worst case scenario," he added.

Source: Xinhua