Russia deports 'illegal' Georgians
Georgia enraged Moscow by arresting four Russian army officers last week on spying charges. The men were later released but their arrest ignited smouldering tensions between the two nations over Georgia's wish to move closer to the West.
The Georgian deportees were rounded up in police raids over the past few days, taken to a military airport outside Moscow and put on a plane bound for Tbilisi. Many were frightened.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "It is terrible, we feel like Jews during World War Two, not like humans," one of the deportees, who gave her name as Irina, told Reuters by mobile telephone from a bus at the airport.
"Last night they told us we would be deported today and advised us to call relatives so they could bring us some essential things."
Russia has severed all transport and postal links with its ex-Soviet neighbour, stopped issuing visas to Georgians, banned key Georgian exports to Russia and raided Georgian businesses in Moscow.
Friday's deportations followed President Vladimir Putin's order on Wednesday to tighten up controls on illegal migrants. Up to a million Georgians live and work in Russia, many without permits, and their remittances are an important contribution to a Georgian economy suffering serious unemployment.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying 143 Georgians were on board the plane. In Tbilisi, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said it would arrive in Georgia at 1600 local time (1200 GMT).
The Kremlin wants Tbilisi to show a "more constructive attitude" before it will consider abandoning sanctions.
Russia's Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika insisted its retaliatory measures were "being carried out within the framework of the law." Selective law enforcement is a long-standing Kremlin tactic against opponents.
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