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Old Habits Die Hard
Posted on 10/04/2006 5:54:31 AM PDT by bd476
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin warned Georgia on Wednesday not to provoke or blackmail Russia as Moscow ignored international appeals to drop economic sanctions against its southern neighbor.
Discussing a dispute with Georgia over the arrests of four Russian officers, who were later released, Putin told lawmakers: "I would not allow anyone to talk to Russia in the language of provocation and blackmail."
But in Georgia, the head of the central bank said his country would block Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) as long as economic sanctions were in force. Russia was hoping to end talks on WTO entry this month.
The officers' arrests on spying charges last week provided a trigger for a wave of Russian retaliatory measures, which included severing all transport and postal links with Georgia and halting visas for Georgians wishing to visit Russia.
Moscow has long been unhappy with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's pro-Western foreign policies and public attacks on its old Soviet master.
"The action of the Georgian authorities in recent months and years is very clearly anti-Russian. This is a political line drawn up by the Georgian government," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters during a visit to Strasbourg.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov brushed off a Georgian plea for Moscow to halt naval exercises in the Black Sea, off Georgia's coast:
"Nobody should expect us to react every time Saakashvili's regime sneezes and change our plans then. That is not going to happen," Ivanov told reporters on a visit to Kyrgyzstan.
Broadening the actions targeting Georgia, Moscow police raided Georgian businesses in the capital on Tuesday.
Authorities shut down a Georgian-owned casino, occupied a Georgian guest house and seized half a million bottles of Georgian wine in separate operations.
The Interior Ministry described the raids as "routine, planned work ... to combat ethnic organized crime groups."
But a law enforcement source told Reuters that officials had received oral instructions to step up action against Georgians.
Russian organizers canceled a visit by Georgia's national ballet, and migration agency officials said they had detected cases of Georgians forging invitations to gain a Russian visa.
WTO THREAT
Tbilisi also stepped up pressure on its giant neighbor.
Georgian National Bank President Roman Gotsiridze told Reuters: "Georgia will never support Russia's accession to the WTO as long as sanctions remain."
As a WTO member, Georgia technically has the power to block new entrants to the organization. Russia is the only major world economy still outside the 149-member body.
The Russian actions, coupled with a strong anti-Georgia campaign in Kremlin-controlled media, have alarmed one million Georgians living in Russia and their relatives back home.
The estimated $300 million a year Georgians send home from Russia are vital to the economy of Georgia, a poor country of five million people which depends on its former Soviet master for trade and energy.
In Tbilisi, the mood remained defiant although ordinary Georgians were increasingly worried about the human and economic impact of the Russian sanctions.
"Will Russia deport Georgians?" Georgia's New Version weekly asked in a headline.
Kakha Bendukidze, Georgia's State Minister for Economic Reforms, told Reuters the Russian measures could take 1.5 percentage points off his country's GDP growth.
Russians holidaying in Georgia were also left stranded by the cutting of air links.
Outside the closed Russian embassy in Tbilisi, Svetlana, a 48-year-old Russian, was trying to find out how to get home.
"My father in Russia is worried about me here," she said. "No matter how much I try to explain to him that we are safe here, he doesn't believe me."
Moscow still holds a number of cards to play against Georgia if it wishes to escalate action still further.
Gas supplies to Tbilisi by Russian state monopoly Gazprom are still flowing. Russian ministers insist Moscow will honor its commitments to pull its remaining 2,000-3,000 troops out of Georgia by 2008 and might even speed up the withdrawal.
(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Niko Mchedlishvil in Tbilisi and Olga Dzyubenko in Bishkek)
Yahoo News and Reuters
Russia raids Georgian businesses as sanctions bite
October 4, 2006
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police have raided Georgian businesses in Moscow after Russia cut transport links with its southern neighbor, escalating a crisis between the two states.
Authorities shut down a Georgian-owned casino, occupied a Georgian guest house and seized half a million bottles of Georgian wine in separate operations on Tuesday.
The action came after Moscow ordered air, sea, rail and postal links with Georgia to be cut in retaliation for Tbilisi's arrest last week of four Russian officers on spying charges.
Georgia released the officers after international mediation but Moscow has ignored U.S. and EU appeals to drop sanctions against Georgia. The Kremlin wants Georgia's pro-Western leadership to change its hostile attitude toward Moscow.
The Interior Ministry described Tuesday's raids as "routine, planned work...to combat ethnic organized crime groups." However a law enforcement source confirmed to Reuters that officials had received oral instructions to step up action against Georgians.
Russian organizers canceled a visit by Georgia's national ballet and migration agency officials said they had detected cases of Georgians forging invitations to gain a Russian visa.
Russia stopped issuing visas to Georgians last week.
Russia's State Duma, or parliament, was preparing a non- binding resolution "on the anti-Russian and anti-democratic policies of the Georgian leadership," legislative sources said.
ANTI-GEORGIAN MOVES ALARM MIGRANTS
Tuesday's moves coupled with an anti-Georgia campaign in Kremlin-controlled media, have alarmed the one million Georgians living in Russia and their relatives back home.
The estimated $300 million a year Georgians send home from Russia are vital to the economy of Georgia, a poor country of five million people which depends on its former Soviet master for trade and energy.
"A patriotic campaign has started in Russia," headlined leading Russian business daily Kommersant. Its front-page photograph showed a demonstrator holding up placards depicting Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili as Adolf Hitler.
"Russia is sliding into a global confrontation with the disobedient country," said the Novye Izvestia newspaper. "It cannot be ruled out that the economic blockade will change into a military conflict between the two countries."
LAVROV DENOUCES "GEORGIAN SLUSH FUND"
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in unusually strident remarks to reporters on Tuesday, claimed that Georgia was channeling funds from organized crime in Russia into a slush fund to buy weapons in a massive military build-up.
He said this was directed at the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both backed by Moscow.
Georgia says it is boosting military spending to reverse years of neglect and bring its forces up to NATO standards.
In Tbilisi, the mood remained defiant although ordinary Georgians were increasingly worried about the human and economic impact of the Russian sanctions.
"Will Russia deport Georgians?" Georgia's New Version weekly asked in a headline. "We do not know exactly what aggression will come out of Russia."
Kakha Bendukidze, Georgia's State Minister for Economic Reforms, told Reuters the Russian measures could take 1.5 percentage points off his country's GDP growth this year.
Moscow still holds a number of cards to play against Georgia if it wishes to escalate action still further.
Gas supplies to Tbilisi by Russian state monopoly Gazprom are still flowing and Russian ministers have insisted that Moscow will honor its commitments to pull its remaining 2,000-3,000 troops out of Georgia by 2008.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that Moscow might even speed up the pullout.
"As far as the group of Russian troops in...Georgia is concerned, we will absolutely not build up these troops," Ivanov said. "On the contrary, we will carry out the withdrawal in line with the timetable and maybe even speed it up."
(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Niko Mchedlishvil in Tbilisi and Olga Dzyubenko in Bishkek)
Russia raids Georgian businesses as sanctions bite
From Russia with Love...SovietRussian Diplomacy Ping.
Putin can bite my Atlanta butt.... Oh, that Georgia!
Ol Pootie's mad. Once in the KGB, always in the KGB.
LOL!
That's probably one of the dominant factors in all of this.
And Putin added... "Provcation and Blackmail are the tools of Soviets... and we are the Soviets!"
"There is more to thislittle pi$$ing matchthan meets the eye."
There, now I agree with you."Why the Russia-Georgia Spat Could Become a U.S. Headache"
4K Russians w/shoot to kill order
LOL! Hey maybe the CCCP owns the registered patent for them, too.
in case the Georgians attack their bases. Stay away - won't have problems.
in case the Georgians attack their bases. Stay away - and you won't have problems.
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Get your unwelcome Russian troops out of Georgia and they won't be attacked.
Or put them on high-alert. Potential attackers may refrain. If they don't the worse for them.
Maybe then Georgians in Russia should attack Russians on Russian soil since Russians feel such nostalgia for Soviet Union that they think they can treat Georgia as their conquered colony. Russians helped Basayev kill thousands of Christian Georgians, so maybe the Georgians should pay the bloodthirsty Russian animals back in kind. The more Russians bleed on Russian soil from terrorist attacks the better, then maybe Russians will be persuaded to go home where they belong and fight their own civil war.
If they were that would have lead to a Georgian-Russian war, nothing else.
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