MOSCOW, RUSSIA - RUSSIA claimed the capture of a Georgian spy allegedly operating in southern Russia to destabilise the region, as tensions mounted between Moscow and Georgia's pro-Western leadership.
Georgia immediately rejected the Russian claims as 'absurd'. Russian news agencies quoted unnamed sources in the FSB security service as saying they had captured a 34-year-old Georgian citizen who had been living in southern Russia's war-torn Chechyna region and recruiting among insurgent groups and the security forces.
'An agent has been exposed, a Russian citizen, a native of Georgia,' an FSB source said, adding that the capture 'confirms the involvement of Georgian secret services in disruptive terrorist activity in the North Caucasus.' The claim comes as tensions between Georgia and Russia have dramatically escalated, centring on a Russian-backed separatist region of Georgia, Abkhazia.
The source said the suspect's work was 'to organise contacts between Georgian secret services and active members of illegal armed groups on Russian territory' in order to provide financing and 'organise armed resistance.' The source also claimed the suspect had links with the remote Pankisi mountain gorge on Georgia's side of the two countries' border, a place Russia has long insisted is an insurgent hideout.
'For fulfilling his tasks the agent several times received financial rewards from Georgia's special services in American dollars. Some of these were handed over in personal meetings, some by... money transfer,' the source said.
The claims were rejected by a spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry.
'It is an absurd accusation. Russia's provocations are becoming more and more aggressive,' the spokesman, Mr Shota Utiashvili, said in Tbilisi.
Tensions between Russia and pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have risen as Georgia pursues membership of the NATO military alliance and also tries to retake control of two separatist regions of Georgia that have Russia's backing: Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Last month Russia announced it was establishing formal ties with the two regions, even though it claims to recognise Georgia's territorial integrity.
Moscow has increased its peacekeeping force in Abkhazia, a force long seen by Tbilisi as giving de facto backing to the rebels.
In recent weeks Abkhaz separatists claim to have shot down a string of Georgian reconnaissance drones. Georgia has denied those claims, saying that one drone has been destroyed by a Russian fighter jet.
Underlying the disputes is Mr Saakashvili's drive to join the NATO military alliance, something Moscow vehemently opposes.
Georgia received a promise of eventual NATO membership, at an unspecified date, at a summit of NATO leaders in Bucharest last month.
Meanwhile Georgia's minister for reintegration of separatist territories, Mr Temur Yakobashvili, was in Moscow for talks with Russian officials, in which the Kommersant newspaper said he would call on Moscow to host a peace conference.
Georgia hopes that under new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Moscow will 'look at things in a new way and act as a peacemaker' in contrast to his predecessor Mr Vladimir Putin, Kommersant quoted the head of the Georgian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Mr Konstantin Gabashvili, as saying. -- AFP
