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Tensions escalate between Russia, Georgia on spy report

By Steve Gutterman

Friday, May 16, 2008

MOSCOW (AP) _ Tensions between Russia and Georgia rose again Friday as Russia's security service reportedly claimed to have uncovered a spy recruited by Georgia to aid insurgents in Russia's south.

Georgia angrily denied the allegation.

The claim — cast as evidence that Georgia backs terrorists in Russia — came with relations severely strained by Georgia's drive for NATO membership and Moscow's support for separatists in the former Soviet republic.

The tension, centered lately on the breakaway Abkhazia region, has led to fears of military conflict between Russia and Georgia, whose location on a key oil export route makes it a focus of contention between Moscow and the West.

Successive bomb blasts in another Georgia separatist region, South Ossetia, underscored tension there.

The Russian espionage allegations added a new dimension to long-standing Russian claims that insurgents in the North Caucasus, which includes war-scarred Chechnya, use Georgian territory as a refuge.

State-run Russian news agencies cited unidentified officials in the Federal Security Service as saying a Georgian-born Russian citizen had been detained recently and had admitted to spying for Georgia.

An unidentified security service official said the alleged agent, Ramzan Turkoshvili, was recruited by Georgian intelligence officers working with Zelimkhan Khangashvili, an alleged militant leader based in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, across the border from Chechnya, ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti reported.

The official was quoted as saying Khangashvili's group was involved in a 2004 attack in Russia's Ingushetia province, adjacent to Chechnya, that left nearly 100 people dead, many of them police.

The official claimed Georgian intelligence paid Turkoshvili, 34, to establish contacts with militants in the North Caucasus in order to help finance and organize their activities, the report said.

The Interfax news agency cited an unidentified FSB official as saying the alleged spy's exposure confirms that Georgia's security service was "participating in disruptive terrorist activities in the North Caucasus."

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili denied the espionage accusation and called it "a continuation of Russia's policy of provocation toward Georgia, which has taken a particularly acute form recently."

Relations between Georgia and Russia have been badly strained since the 2004 election of Georgia's pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili, who has sought to reduce Moscow's influence and has cultivated close ties with the United States and European Union.

Tension has increased sharply in recent months, with Saakashvili pushing for NATO membership and Russia promising an energetic campaign to prevent Georgia from joining the alliance.

The tension has focused on Abkhazia, one of two regions that broke from central government control in early 1990s wars and have backing from Russia, which has granted most of their residents citizenship.

Russia has increased support for Abkhazia's separatist government, lifting trade sanctions, firming up legal ties and bolstering a peacekeeping force Georgia claims sides with the separatists.

Georgia accuses Russia of moving to annex Abkhazia. The Georgian Cabinet minister in charge of ties with the separatist republics, Temur Yakobashvili, called Russia's actions "an obvious attempt to redraw the borders in Eastern Europe."

Yakobashvili was speaking in Moscow after talks with Russian officials that both sides said achieved little.

Russia and Georgia accuse each other of gearing up for aggression in Abkhazia. Concerns are high that even a small incident could touch off fighting.

Adding to the attention on Abkhazia is its role in preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian resort city of Sochi, close to the province's border on the Black Sea coast. Regional Russian officials signed an agreement with Abkhazian authorities Friday for Abkhazia to supply building materials for Olympic facilities, RIA-Novosti reported.

Saakashvili, meanwhile, urged Abkhazia to look to Georgia, not Russia, for help reviving its economy. He said closer cooperation with the central government would "mean that Abkhazia, which instead of development, success and wealth is offered rusty Russian tanks, would become a part of the successful development of Georgia's economy."

In South Ossetia, two roadside bomb blasts and a third explosion hit Georgian-controlled areas Friday, officials said. One of the bombs exploded when a convoy of Georgian police was passing, seriously injuring an officer, Georgian police and military officials said.

The other roadside bomb caused no casualties, and authorities were checking reports that a local resident was wounded in the third explosion, officials said.

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