Russia suspends transport links with Georgia
Russia today suspended all transport and postal links with neighbouring Georgia until further notice, the transport and communications ministries said.
The sanctions, in retaliation for Georgia’s detention last week of four Russian officers accused of spying, were announced yesterday despite Tbilisi’s decision to free the Russians and allow them to return to Moscow.
The measures, which appear aimed at dealing a painful blow to the economically struggling Caucasus nation, mark the first time Russia has used such pressure against a former Soviet state and reflects intense Kremlin anger at Georgia’s pro-Western policies.
“As of October 3, all air, rail, road and sea transport to Georgia has been halted until further notice,” said Timur Khikhmanov, a spokesman for Russia’s Transport Ministry.
The Communications Ministry also said that postal services to Georgia had been suspended.
Yesterday’s sanctions came in the wake of a government session at which Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the arrests as “state terrorism involving hostage taking” and ordered his top Cabinet members to draw up a set of retaliatory measures.
Russia’s long-chilly relations with Georgia have worsened steadily since President Mikhail Saakashvili came to power following Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution, vowing to take the country out of Russia’s orbit, bring breakaway provinces back into the fold and join Nato in 2008.
Saakashvili’s course has angered Moscow, which has warily watched the US expansion into what it considers its home turf.
Georgia still hosts unwanted Russia troops on its soil, and is facing two Russian-backed separatist movements that could still flare up in new violence.
It was not immediately clear how long Russia would maintain the blockade on Georgia.
Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said, while welcoming the released Russian officers at a Moscow airport, that their flight could be “the last flight from Georgia this year,” the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
In an even more crippling blow, Russian politicians scheduled debates this week on a new bill that could bar Georgians living in Russia from cabling money home.
About 300,000 Georgians are currently living in Russia, according to Russian officials, but some estimates put their number at about 1 million of Georgia’s 4.4 million population.
