"Mother Russia" Turns the Screws on Georgia

More and more every day, Putin acts more and more like his Soviet predecessors. His bullying tactics against the breakaway republic of Georgia is just one example. Georgia is another budding democracy looking for NATO membership to protect it from Russia. Russia seems bent on showing Georgia what future they will have with it's neighbor should they continue to drift away from under the big Russian thumb.
International Herald Tribune

Moscow slapped transport and postal sanctions on Georgia in response to Georgia's arrest last week of four Russian officers accused of espionage. Georgia released the officers on Monday, but the Kremlin has refused to back down despite Western calls for an end to the punitive measures.


In addition, police are targeting the large Georgian Diaspora in Moscow with raids of businesses and restaurants. The Russian parliament will also consider a bill later this week that would allow the government to bar Georgians living in Russia from sending money home — a step that would deal a huge blow to Georgia's struggling economy. According to some estimates, about 1 million of Georgia's 4.4 million population work in Russia, and their families rely on the hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) in annual remittances.


Moscow's aim appears to be to punish Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili for his defiance of Russia through the detention of its officers on spying charges. The dispute more widely reflects Kremlin alarm at Tbilisi's goal of NATO membership and the growing U.S. influence in its former Soviet backyard.


A Kremlin official, Modest Kolerov, said the sanctions — a suspension of air, road, maritime, rail and postal links — would not be lifted until Georgia ended its "hostile rhetoric" toward Russia, the Gazeta.ru news Web site reported. A close Putin ally, parliamentary speaker Boris Gryzlov, warned that more punitive measures could follow. "Not all sanctions have been imposed," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.


Piling on the pressure, authorities Tuesday closed two popular casinos run by Georgians in the Russian capital, saying they did not have authorization for their casino tables and slot machines. They also raided a hotel and two restaurants run by Georgians, saying they could be closed for legal violations.


The Kommersant daily quoted police officials as saying that 40 Georgian restaurants and shops in downtown Moscow would be raided in the next few days. The Georgian ballet had to cancel a planned tour in Russia because it could not obtain visas. MORE