Detained Russian officers left Georgia

The Russian servicemen charged of espionage in Georgia were handed over to representatives of Russia and went home.

OSCE representatives handed the Russian soldiers over to the Russian representatives on the takeoff strip of Tbilisi airport. The Ministry for Emergencies of Russia used its Yak-42 aircraft to bring Russian to Moscow.

Carel de Guht, Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, acted as a mediator at Georgia's act of releasing Russian officers.

Monday afternoon, the four Russian servicemen were handed over by Georgian authorities to OSCE representatives. It happened in the building of the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia in the presence of Carel de Guht, Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Gela Bezhuashvili, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and representatives of the Russia's Embassy.

Prior to start the delivery ceremony, the representative of the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia read out the following statement:

"You, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Savva, Lieutenant Colonel Dmitri Kazantsev, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zavgorodniy and Major Alexander Baranov, are accused of espionage against Georgia. This offence is covered by Part 1 of Article 314 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. In the context of the aforesaid, you are excluded from the country, and of this moment you are prohibited from entering the territory of Georgia," the statement ran, the RIA "Novosti" informs.

The correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" informed earlier that the day of September 27 ended in Georgia in a full-weight spy scandal. The Georgia authorities announced detainment in Tbilisi of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Savva and Lieutenant Colonel Dmitri Kazantsev, in Batumi; they detained Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zavgorodniy and Major Alexander Baranov. Later, in Georgia two more Russian servicemen were detained - Amir Aslanyan and Ruslan Skrylnikov. They are all accused by Georgia or running reconnaissance activities in the territory of the country. The Russian party appraised the actions of Georgian power structures as provocative and requested an immediate release of Russian soldiers. On September 28, Russia recalled its Ambassador from Georgia. On October 2, the Transport Ministry of Russia declared a cease of air, railway, motor and river communications with Georgia.