As Moscow began evacuating Russian officials from the Georgian capital, Georgia's interior ministry said the four Russian officers would be put on trial later in the day and a fifth had been released without charge.
Georgian police are surrounding Russia's military headquarters in Tbilisi demanding the handover of another suspect.
Relations between the two ex-Soviet states have plummeted to a new low since the arrests of the Russian officers and a dozen of their alleged Georgian agents on Wednesday.
Georgia alleges the suspects were members of a "very dangerous" spy network that had gathered sensitive military information, organised an explosion that killed three police and was planning a "serious provocation" on Georgian soil.
Moscow has described the allegations as "wild and hysterical" and declared that it will use every means to free the officers. It has recalled its ambassador to Tbilisi, suspended issuing Russian visas to Georgian citizens and warned Russians not to travel to Georgia.
Russia urged the UN security council to take up the issue at a meeting on today. Russian newspapers reacted furiously to the dispute in today's morning editions. The daily Izvestia headlined its front-page story "Georgia provokes Russia to use force to release its military", while Kommersant reported that "Russia took measures against Georgia yesterday that usually precede military action".
A Russian Ilyushin cargo plane landed in Tbilisi this morning to pick up several hundred Russian officials and bring them home. A second plane was scheduled to arrive later in the day.
The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has denounced the evacuation as hysteria. "Russian personnel and their families face no threat here," he said.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has so far not commented publicly on the crisis. Relations between the two countries have been on a downward spiral since Mr Saakashvili came to power after the 2003 "rose revolution" pledging to boost ties with the west and join Nato. Tbilisi accuses Russia of backing opposition to Mr Saakashvili and supporting regimes in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where hundreds of Russian peacekeepers are deployed.
A Georgian political analyst, Alexander Rondeli, said Georgia's actions this week reflected growing frustration with Russian interference. "The Georgian leadership has lost all patience with the constant pressure coming from Russia," he said. "I expect relations will get worse before they get better."
Adding further strain, officials in South Ossetia said today that masked Georgian officers detained and beat four Russian peacekeepers last night. Georgia dismissed the claim as "rubbish". The crisis is likely to dominate a meeting of Nato defence ministers with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, in Slovenia today. Moscow reacted angrily to a Nato agreement to deepen cooperation with Georgia last week, calling the move a throwback to the cold war.
