MOSCOW, September 28 (RIA Novosti) - Another Russian officer and six soldiers were detained by Georgian authorities and beaten in the country's Black Sea port of Batumi, the Russian defense minister said Thursday. All were later released.
Tensions between Russia and Georgia have been rising steadily for the past several years over the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"They were beaten, their car and weapons were seized," Sergei Ivanov said, adding that the servicemen were released around 3 a.m. local time.
Relations between Russia and Georgia hit new lows Wednesday when Tbilisi said it had detained five senior Russian army officers and more than 10 alleged local agents on suspicion of spying.
The accusations brought a strident response from Moscow, with the Foreign Ministry branding the claims as unsubstantiated and demanding that the officers, who have been conducting routine work to ensure the withdrawal of military hardware and troops from two Soviet-era bases in Georgia, be released immediately.
Russia's reaction to the detention of its officers in Georgia will be "adequate and reasoned," said Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister.
And the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi Thursday stopped issuing Russian visas to Georgian nationals.
"Starting from September 28, the Russian Embassy stopped issuing visas to all citizens of Georgia," press secretary Mikhail Svirin said, without elaborating on the reason behind the decision.
Ivanov said the developments were an attempt to provoke Russia and deprive its peacekeepers of legitimacy.
"The climate in Georgia resembles 1937," he said, adding that he sympathized with the Georgian people, whose authorities aimed to raise confrontation to a peak level.
A Russian embassy official said a total of five Russian servicemen, including four senior officers and a warrant officer, were detained Wednesday and are being held at a detention facility of Georgia's counterintelligence service.
However, a source in Georgia's Interior Ministry said the number of Russian detainees rose to six after one more officer was detained in the Black Sea port of Batumi in the early hours of Thursday.
The Georgian interior minister said one more intelligence officer was believed to be hiding at the Russian peacekeepers' headquarters, and a special operation, including the cordoning off the headquarters building, will continue until he is arrested.
At the moment, Georgian military police continue to surround the headquarters.
Ivanov said Georgian authorities suspect the officers of spying and of involvement in terrorist attacks in the Caucasus country.
"The claims are completely unsubstantiated and incredible," he said, adding that three of the detainees arrived in Georgia a month ago and could not have been involved in any terrorist attacks in the country, which took place long before.
Relations have been tense since West-leaning Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in Georgia on the back of the 2003 "rose revolution." Georgia has accused Russia of meddling in its internal affairs, particularly with regard to the two breakaway regions and energy supplies, while Russia slapped a ban on mineral water and wine coming from its southern neighbor over health concerns.
