MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has branded as "moronic and farfetched" the espionage charges Georgia brought against a number of Russian military officers it detained last night.
"The charges that have been brought against them are moronic and absolutely farfetched," Ivanov told journalists in Moscow on Thursday.
"No documented charges have been brought against the Russian officers, and they will not sign any documents," he said.
The minister said the Russian officers had been charged with spying and staging terrorist attacks in Georgian territory.
"Three of these officers joined the Russian military contingent in the South Caucasus three months ago," he said.
"As for the prosecution case, I will not be surprised if they get indicted for planning to steal the sun from the sky," Ivanov said.
"The cordon round the Russian military contingent's headquarters in Tbilisi will not be lifted as long as people suspected of spying and committing acts of sabotage in Georgian territory are hiding in it," Okruashvili said on Rustavi-2 television on Wednesday evening.
"These people are not just suspects. There is confirmed evidence that they were involved in spying and acts of sabotage," he said.
"Today's events have shown that we will not allow agents and spies to be on the loose here," he said.
"The people detained in Tbilisi were engaged primarily in military espionage: in particular, their interest was concentrated on the defense sphere, projects related to [Georgia's] cooperation with NATO, government defense procurements, and a lot of other things," he said.
"There are a lot more people who will be or have already been put on the list of those to be arrested," he said.
Okruashvili said that, as far as he knows, none of the Russians who have already been arrested or who are being searched for has diplomatic immunity.
"Until lately, these people apparently thought they were dealing not with the Georgian state but with some Georgian territory without borders and government institutions, but today's events showed clearly that this is not so," Okruashvili said.
"We will stand quite firm so that these people are brought to justice in Georgia," the minister said.
Okruashvili admitted that "the Russian military headquarters in Tbilisi enjoys diplomatic status, and the Georgian side will live up to international standards."
"There was a moment when the Georgian side took a constructive approach toward Russia's demands that a high-ranking Russian officer, Col. Boiko, who had been detained in Georgia on suspicion of committing acts of sabotage and blowing up power transmission line towers, be handed over to Russia," Okruashvili said.
"We did it then, expecting mutual constructive steps on their part, but we received something different in response," he said.
"From now on, there will be no more such constructiveness, and military cooperation with Russia makes no sense any more," Okruashvili said.
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said earlier at a news briefing that Lt. Col. Konstantin Pichugin of the Russian military intelligence service GRU was hiding inside the headquarters and that Georgian authorities also suspected him of spying.
Merabishvili said that four Russian GRU officers and 12 Georgian citizens had been detained on Wednesday on spying charges.