'No country can threaten Russia'

2006-10-04 14:58

Moscow - President Vladimir Putin warned Georgia on Wednesday that no country should get away with threatening Russia, setting the stage for passage of a parliamentary motion fiercely condemning Tbilisi's pro-Western leadership.

"I would not counsel anyone to talk to Russia in the language of provocations and blackmail," Putin told the heads of the parliamentary factions, adding that he was speaking specifically about Georgia.

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. Lawmakers were to vote on a toughly worded resolution on Georgia later on Wednesday.

Georgians targeted

Police, meanwhile, were targeting the large Georgian diaspora in Moscow with raids of businesses and restaurants and the Russian parliament is set this week to consider a bill that would allow the government to bar Georgians living in Russia from sending money home - which would deal a huge blow to Georgia's struggling economy.

According to some estimates, about one million of Georgia's 4.4 million population work in Russia, and their families rely on the hundreds of millions of dollars in annual remittances.

Punishment for defiance

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 US influence in its former Soviet backyard.

A Kremlin official 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.

- AP