Georgia releases Russian 'spies'

Four Russian army officers arrested in Georgia for spying were allowed to fly home yesterday as Tbilisi tried to defuse the worst crisis in years between the ex-Soviet neighbours.

But Moscow ignored international appeals for a similar goodwill gesture and announced it would cut air, sea and land links between the two countries, alleging unpaid debts and safety violations.

After a compromise deal brokered by international mediators, the four Russian officers boarded a Russian Emergencies Ministry aircraft at Tbilisi's airport and then took off bound for Moscow, said a Reuters witness at the airport.

Earlier, at a ceremony in front of the media, Georgian police officers removed handcuffs from the four and handed them over to a delegation from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"The message to Russia is: 'Enough is enough'," Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters at the ceremony, which was conducted mostly in English for the benefit of international media.

"We want to have good relations. We want to have dialogue. But we cannot be treated as a second-rate backyard of some kind of emerging empire."

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, welcomed Tbilisi's decision to release the Russian soldiers. "I hope normal relations can now be re-established between Russia and Georgia," he said in a statement.