Putin overreacts to spy row: Georgian president

Batumi (Georgia), Oct 2: Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili shrugged off today Moscow's harsh reaction to the arrest of four Russian army officers for spying, that fuelled a crisis in relations between the two ex-Soviet states.

Saakashvili, a strong U.S. ally whose drive to bring the small Caucasus state to NATO irks Moscow, also rejected suggestions that his actions were guided by Washington.

Russia recalled its ambassador from Tbilisi, evacuated much of its diplomatic and military staff from Georgia and stopped issuing visas in protest against the detention last week of its four army officers charged with spying.

In harsh remarks unusual even for chronically strained ties between the two states, President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused Georgia yesterday of ''state terrorism with hostage-taking''.

''I don't think this is serious,'' Saakashvili said in a late night interview to Western journalists in the Black Sea port of Batumi. ''It is an overreaction caused by nervousness that they have created by themselves.'' ''They have become hostages of their own propaganda,'' he added speaking in English.

Georgia suspects Russia of seeking to change its pro-Western government, which came to power in the 2003 ''Revolution of Roses'', and blames it for backing separatists in its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russia denies these charges.

Influential Moscow politicians have suggested that Russia should introduce stronger measures against Georgia to force it to free the arrested officers. Most radical views suggested that alongside economic sanctions, military force could be used.

Georgia is a nation of only five million people where many families rely on remittances sent back by relatives or friends working in Russia. The country also depends on Russia for gas and electricity supplies.

Saakashvili said he did not believe Moscow could resort to force and added that Georgia, which already lives with the Russian ban on imports of its wine, was not scared of further economic sanctions like an embargo on energy supplies.

''I don't think they are irrational enough to use the military force,'' he said. ''People have got used to economic problems and have started coping with them.'' Mr Putin, who met his top security officials over the Georgian crisis yesterday, implicitly suggested that Georgia's new Western allies, first and foremost the United States, have encouraged Saakashvili to confront Moscow in the spying row.

''Some people think they can feel comfortable and safe hiding under the protection of their foreign sponsors,'' Putin said.

''There seem to be forces which specialise in creating new crises ... to divert attention from old problems,'' Putin said in clear reference to Washington.

Mr Saakashvili denied such suggestions.

''Some people could consider our action as something that has been coordinated by Washington,'' he said. ''This is not true. U.S.

State Department made it very clear that this is a bilateral issue between Georgia and Russia.''

REUTERS

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