10 Georgian spies arrested in Russia

On August 12, 2008 FSB director Alexander Bortnikov said that the security service had detained 10 Georgian intelligence service officers who were spying on military facilities and preparing terrorist attacks, including in Russia.

According to Bortnikov, the Russian security forces have arrested a top Georgian intelligence officer on charges of collecting data on Russian troops in the North Caucasus and breakaway South Ossetia. The FSB gave his surname as Kherksladze, and said the suspect had described himself as the deputy head of Georgia's Foreign Intelligence Service.

The FSB said Kherksladze has been running a network of agents in Russia collecting information, "including on military and strategic facilities in the Southern Federal District." The FSB also said Georgian secret services had tried to organize underground militant groups in the North Caucasus.

The FSB claimed it had arrested a Russian national, one Ramzan Turkoshvili, who "confessed to being recruited by Georgian secret services with the direct involvement of one of the leaders of terrorists hiding in the Pankisi Gorge." The FSB said that the intelligence officer had been given the task of "organizing militant resistance to federal authorities" in Ingushetia and other regions of Russia's Southern Federal District, adding that he was also believed to have been a link between militant groups in Russia and Georgian secret services.

The Russian Republic of Ingushetia borders on Chechnya and has been the scene of increasing militant attacks on police and federal forces of late.

Later this month, the FSB stated that a senior Russian army officer has been arrested in the Stavropol region on suspicion of spying for Georgia. Mikhail Khachidze, an ethnic Georgian, was recruited by Georgian intelligence late last year while he was stationed in a unit based on Georgian territory, according to a statement issued by the FSB. According to the investigation, Lt. Col. Mikhail Khachidze, a deputy unit commander in the North Caucasus Military District, was recruited by Georgian military intelligence in October 2007 and had been passing them military secrets.

In August 2009 Mikhail Khachidze was sentenced for 6 years in prison.

Agentura.Ru, March 14, 2011