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#4 - JRL 2006-221 - JRL Home
Russian military says no Georgia-wanted officer in HQ

MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian officer wanted by the Georgian authorities is not in the headquarters of the Group of Russian Forces in the South Caucasus, a military official said Saturday.

Tensions have mounted between Russia and Georgia after the South Caucasus country arrested five Russian officers Wednesday, with one later released, and charged them with espionage. And the Georgian authorities cordoned off the headquarters of the Russian contingent in the South Caucasus in Tbilisi demanding the surrender of another Russian officer, Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Pichugin.

"He is not on the headquarters' compound," said Vladimir Kuparadze, a deputy commander of the Russian contingent in the South Caucasus.

He said the cordon around the headquarters had not been lifted and that policemen continued to check documents. Buildings housing families of the military are guarded by military patrols around the clock, he said.

Kuparadze said some families were being evacuated, although mass evacuation was out of the question.

"These are people whose safety we cannot ensure because they live beyond garrisons. We will also deliver to Russia children and people who wish to leave Georgia at this troubled moment," he said.

Kuparadze said security had been enhanced in garrisons.

Georgia announced Friday that the four officers had been charged and remanded in custody for two months. The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the spying allegations Wednesday night as unsubstantiated and senior officials, including Defense Minster Sergei Ivanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have led the charge of virulent criticism of Tbilisi's decision to arrest the officers.

Russia recalled the ambassador in Georgia and evacuated some of the embassy staff and their families over security concerns.

Russian envoy to Georgia Ivan Volynkin said Friday that Russia had no intention to hand Pichugin over to Georgian authorities.

Relations have been tense between Russia and Georgia in the past few years over Georgia's breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Russian peacekeeping forces have been stationed since the bloody conflicts of the early 1990s.