AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Georgia has turned four Russian officers accused of spying over to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an AFP reporter on the scene has reported.
A Georgian official read a statement Monday to each of the four officers outside the prosecutor's office informing them that they were being expelled from the country on suspicion of espionage and would not be permitted to return.
Each was then seated in a separate OSCE vehicle and driven away.
The current OSCE chairman, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, told AFP that the four men would be returned to Russia immediately.
“They will be flown to Russia today,” De Gucht said. “But before doing so, I will have a private conversation with them.”
Speaking at a news conference shortly before the handover, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili described the handover of the four men as “a goodwill gesture to our European friends and allies.
“It is in no way a response to pressure,” he said.
Several hours earlier, authorities in Moscow announced Russia was suspending all air, sea and land links with Georgia as well as postal deliveries and money transfers through the postal service, moves certain to have an immediate and sharp economic impact on the impoverished country.
The Georgian leader said his government had opted to make a major diplomatic issue of the arrests of the four officers in order to spotlight efforts that he says are supported by Moscow to subvert his administration.
“We went public this time because we are sick and tired of acts of subversion,” Saakashvili said.
