Russia 'Suspends' All Transport Links With Georgia
02 October 2006
Russian news agencies are reporting that the country's Transport Ministry has ordered all air, rail, land and sea links to Georgia to be suspended.
Russia's ministry has not confirmed Monday's reports.
The announcement came shortly after Georgia said it will hand over four Russian military officers arrested on spying charges to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
A presidential spokesman in Tbilisi says Georgia will deliver the four officers to the O.S.C.E. later Monday.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has played down the seriousness of the dispute with Moscow, and shrugged off Russia's angry reaction to detention of the four men.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has denounced the incident as "state terrorism" by Georgia. He also has compared the Tbilisi government's actions to tactics employed decades ago by Soviet secret police serving dictator Josef Stalin.
The Kremlin denies the four officers were involved in espionage against Georgia.
Russia recalled its ambassador as a protest, and evacuated most of its diplomatic and military staff from Georgia.
The Russian military's commander in the Caucasus region (General Andrei Popov) says his troops will use deadly force, if necessary, to defend their military bases in Georgia.
Mr. Putin is reported to have ordered a planned pullout of Russian troops from Georgia to continue. All Russian forces are expected to leave by the end of 2008.
Relations between the former Soviet republics have been steadily worsening for months.
Georgia accuses Russian peacekeepers of siding with two groups of separatists trying to break away from Georgia. Both regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s, but authorities in Tbilisi have vowed to return the territory to the central government's control.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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