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Wrap: Russia deports Georgians as casino crackdown continues

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Russia deported 180 Georgians Friday, continued to shut casinos and restaurants allegedly controlled by the Georgian mafia and reportedly made inquiries at schools as part of a crackdown following an "espionage" scandal.
MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - Russia deported 180 Georgians Friday, continued to shut casinos and restaurants allegedly controlled by the Georgian mafia and reportedly made inquiries at schools as part of a crackdown following an "espionage" scandal.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have hit rock bottom after four Russian servicemen were arrested in Georgia on spying charges last week. Although they were released Monday, Russia shut down transport and postal links with Georgia and threatened to cut off money transfers.

And two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for immigration laws to be tightened, Russia deported 180 Georgians Friday over alleged irregularities, the press service at the airport in Tbilisi said.

Georgian Economy Minister Irakly Chogovadze, though, was upbeat about the future of the deported nationals, many of whom are thought to have come to Russia to earn money to support their families, saying they would find work in their homeland.

"I do not think that we will face problems with the arrival of our citizens from Russia," he said. "Each of them will be able to find a job and be useful in his home country."

About a million Georgians - a fifth of the Caucasus country's population - are believed to reside in Russia and a deputy speaker of Russia's lower chamber of parliament suggested earlier in the week that at least 300,000 were doing so illegally.

Two planes of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry took the deported Georgians to the Georgian capital, and one of them will now take back to Moscow Russians who have asked the consulate in Georgia to help them leave the South Caucasus country.

A total of 176 Russians, mainly tourists who could not return to Russia after the closure of air links with Georgia, are on board the flight, according to Russian officials.

Ivan Volynkin, Russia's charge d'affaires in Georgia, said 80 more Russians had been added to the list of the embassy, where only two diplomats are working after Russia recalled its ambassador to Tbilisi and evacuated the vast majority of its embassy staff and their families late last week.

Volynkin said the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry will organize a new flight for them to Tbilisi October 9.

Casinos and restaurants

Moscow police also said Friday they had closed a fourth casino allegedly controlled by Georgian mafia. Three other casinos - The Golden Palace Weekend, Kristal and Golden Palace - were shut down this week for the same reason and for alleged numerous violations of the tax code.

Anzhela Kastoyeva, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said: "An inspection was held at the [Cosmos] casino yesterday, which revealed a number of violations."

She said hygiene norms were breached at the casino, which, according to her, also sold bootleg alcohol and kept personal files on regular customers.

The Moscow police are also checking the Sol casino for any involvement in a Georgian criminal gang. The casino may be closed after the inspection.

Russian authorities have also hinted it might suspend banking operations and money transfers between the two countries as a way of stopping illegal capital flows, which it said are ultimately used for the militarization of the region.

Earlier on Friday, the Moscow police closed two Georgian restaurants, Tiflissky Dvorik and Genatsvale VIP, in the centre of the city.

School report

A leading Russian daily, Kommersant, said Friday police in Moscow had taken matter even further by phoning schools to demand that they provide lists of students with Georgian surnames so that officers could check whether the children's parents were registered, where they worked and paid taxes.

A senior law enforcement source said, "This initiative comes from the Interior Ministry. At the end of last week, each police department received a telegram telling them to identify illegal migrants from Georgia residing in their precincts."

The administrations of 50 Moscow schools the newspaper reached denied the checks, but there were some exceptions and the Moscow Department of Education seemed to be enraged at the idea.

Lyubov Kezina, the department's head, pledged to defend children's right to education. "I will do everything for Moscow children to be able to study in the capital regardless of their parents' ethnic origin and registration," she said.

And the official was at pains to stress the controversial measures were targeting adults. "All this comes from police, but the checks are aimed not at Georgian children but rather their parents, who could be illegal migrants," she said.

Kommersant said two years ago, after 331 people died in the Beslan school siege, the Interior Ministry looked for a "Chechen trace," sending requests to schools about Caucasus natives. Kezina stopped these checks, according to the paper.

The head of Georgian community in Moscow said such actions were unacceptable. "Acting through children is immoral! Perhaps they will interrogate children now?" Teimuraz Sturua said.

President Putin urged the government Thursday to toughen visa regulations for foreigners who break the law, and to introduce quotas on the foreign labor force by November 15.

"I instruct the government to make immediate decisions regulating trade at retail and wholesale markets," the president told the council in charge of national welfare projects.

Many people from the "southern" former Soviet republics seek employment at Moscow's numerous marketplaces in a bid to support relatives in their homeland, but they are often accused of being run by organized crime groups.

The quotas will depend on the profession and qualification of foreign employees, their native countries and other economic and social criteria, and will aim to ensure national security and making the employment of Russian citizens a priority.

At the same time, Russia, which is facing an acute demographic crisis, has been mulling streamlining registration proceedings for guest workers and improving their conditions in the country - a popular destination for labor migrants from many struggling post-Soviet states.

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