Russia Recalls Ambassador From Georgia

Russian soldiers march during a changing of the guards ceremony at the Russian Army headquarters in Tbilisi, Georgia, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006. Russia's defense minister on Thursday denounced Georgia's detention of five Russian officers on spying charges as an attempt to provoke the Kremlin. Georgia detained the officers on Wednesday, prompting a barrage of angry statements from Moscow and signaling a new low in the tense relations between the two ex-Soviet neighbors. (AP Photo/ Shakh Aivazov ) (Shakh Aivazov - AP)

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called the charges against the officers absurd and demanded their immediate release. "I won't be surprised if today the Georgian side files charges against them of wanting to steal the sun from the sky," Ivanov said on Russian television.

Speaking later on a trip to Slovenia, he said he had advised all Russian servicemen and their family members in Georgia against leaving their homes. "Banditry in Georgia has reached state dimensions," he said in televised remarks.

He also claimed the detentions were part of Georgia's efforts to force Russia to withdraw its peacekeepers from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have enjoyed de-facto independence without international recognition since breaking away after bloody wars in the early 1990s.

Russia has also granted most residents of the two regions citizenship, and maintains two military bases in Georgia. One is to be closed in 2007; the other a year later.

"All this is done to squeeze our peacekeepers and to make their status illegitimate using any means, thus violating fragrantly all previous agreements," he said.

Saakashvili, who has vowed to bring Abkhazia and South Ossetia back into fold, accused Moscow last week of "gangster occupation" of the two provinces in a speech before the United Nations.

A Georgian political analyst, Ramaz Sakvarelidze, said the detentions could reflect Saakashvili's frustrations at being unable to regain control of the renegade provinces.

Sakvarelidze said because Saakashvili's Western allies would likely oppose Georgia retaking the regions by force, the Georgian government is increasing the political pressure on Russia. "A spy scandal fits organically into such a scheme of action," he said.

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Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.