Following reports that Georgian police had surrounded a Russian Military HQ in Tbilisi, the BBC now has some breaking news.

Four Russian officers detained in Georgia have been charged with spying, officials in Tbilisi have said.

They were expected to appear in court for a preliminary hearing later on Friday, a Georgian interior ministry spokesman said.

Russia is recalling its ambassador to Tbilisi after Wednesday’s arrests and is beginning a partial evacuation of its personnel from Georgia.

Georgia’s president described Moscow’s reaction to the arrests as “hysteria”.

Meanwhile, RFE/RL yesterday ran a report on a possible Armenian connection in these developments although Yerevan is denying involvement.

Armenia distanced itself Thursday from the latest upsurge in Russian-Georgian tensions that has been triggered by the arrest of a group of Russian military officers for alleged spying which Georgia says was coordinated by Russian intelligence agents in Yerevan.

Georgian authorities said on Wednesday that they detained four GRU (Russian military intelligence) officers as well as 11 Georgian citizens suspected of involvement in an alleged Russian plot against the pro-Western government in Tbilisi. Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said they “acted under the leadership from Yerevan” of a top GRU officer whom he identified as Anatoly Sinitsyn.

[…]

Officials in Yerevan insisted that Armenia, Russia’s main regional ally, bears no responsibility for the acrimonious scandal. “We have nothing to do with that,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Vladimir Karapetian, told RFE/RL.

Colonel-General Mikael, the Armenian chief of staff, echoed the statement, urging journalists not to “jump into conclusions.” He also dismissed as irrelevant the fact that four of the arrested Georgian nationals are reportedly ethnic Armenians.