Georgia's counter-intelligence service arrested four Russian military intelligence (GRU - Glavnoye Razvedovatelnoye Upravlenie) officers and eleven citizens of Georgia who were cooperating with Russian intelligence services, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said on September 27. Two others - Alexander Zavgorodny and Alexander Baranov - were arrested in Batumi, the Georgian Interior Minister said. Earlier on September 27 officials from the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi were quoted in Russian media sources as saying that four senior Russian officers were missing in Georgia. The Georgian Interior Minister also said that GRU officer Konstantine Pugachin “is currently hiding in the headquarters of the Russian Troops in the Trans-Caucasus (GRVZ) in Tbilisi.” “Our police forces have sealed off the headquarters – you know that this territory still has diplomatic immunity, so we have no possibility to undertake any operation on this territory. So our counter-intelligence department has asked the GRVZ command to hand over this agent to the Georgian side,” Merabishvili said. He also said that eleven Georgian citizens have been arrested, and listed their names: Artashes Baloyan, Viktor Orekhov, Alexander Zalinian, Victor Zabrodin, Yuri Zabrodin, Goderdzi Dzuliashvili, Gia Kakauridze, Aziz Aslaniani, Karen Aboyan, Petre Apramian and Beso Gabaidze. He said the group’s major sphere of interest was gathering information about Georgia’s armed forces, Georgia’s NATO integration, energy security, opposition parties and non-governmental organizations, military procurements, sea ports and railways, and Georgian troops stationed in the conflict zones. “We have managed to neutralize a very dangerous group. We will provide additional information later,” Merabishvili said. |
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