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Russia Starts Deporting Illegal Immigrants From Georgia

[color="DimGray"]Created: 06.10.2006 14:48 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:48 MSK, 4 hours 15 minutes ago

MosNews

Russia deported on Friday a planeload of Georgians accused of illegal immigration in its latest blow against its southern neighbor, the Reuters news agency reports.

“I can confirm that the plane with Georgians deported from Moscow will arrive in Tbilisi at 1600 local time (1200 GMT),” Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nino Kajaia said.

The Georgians were rounded up in police raids over the past few days as part of a wider Russian campaign of sanctions against Tbilisi. Moscow acted after Georgia briefly arrested four Russian officers on spying charges.

The Georgian deportees were taken to a military airport outside Moscow and put on a plane bound for Tbilisi.

Officials would not say how many Georgians were on board.

Interfax news agency at first said 130 Georgians would be deported on the flight and later quoted an unnamed official as saying 143 were on the plane.

Russia has so far cut transport links with Georgia, stopped issuing visas to Georgians and raided Georgian businesses in Moscow but Friday’s deportations were the first mass removal of Georgians from Russia since the current crisis broke.

MOSNEWS.COM