A senior Russian lawmaker said arrest of four Russian citizens by Georgia on espionage charges was “a provocation” and “a serious situation.”
 
”This is a very serious situation and those, who have started this provocation in Georgia, should clearly understand and know that Russia will not leave its citizens in trouble. People with no links to the special services have been arrested,” Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, State Duma, was quoted by the Russian news agencies.
 
“I would like to recall words of the President of the Russian Federation, who has said for number of times, that Russia will always protect its citizens everywhere with all the available means,” he added.

Meanwhile, a senior Georgian lawmaker said that uncovering of the Russian spy network was a huge blow for the Russian intelligence and “a burst of a myth about omnipotence of the Russian intelligence.”

“Uncovering of this network also means that we have significantly strengthened our security,” Akaki Minashvili, a ruling party lawmaker, who chairs parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, said.

He said that Georgia could not turn a blind eye on Russia’s such operations in Georgia.
 
“Priority is to uncover [agents] and to punish them,” he said. “As far as their reaction is concerned of course they will deny [having links to alleged spies].”

“I can imagine in what a condition they might be now – Putin and his intelligence agencies. I am sure they will carry out purge in their special agencies after such important information was exposed,” MP Minashvili said.