GEORGIA DEPORTS TWO RUSSIAN OFFICERS

The Georgian authorities on 29 January deported two senior Russian military officers who had arrived in Tbilisi the previous day, Caucasus Press reported. The two colonels applied at the Tbilisi airport for Georgian entry visas but were refused, apparently because their names did not figure on a list earlier submitted to the Georgian Foreign Ministry. In a statement issued on 28 January, the Russian Foreign Ministry again affirmed that Moscow had been constrained to impose the visa requirement for Georgian citizens wishing to enter the Russian Federation in order to safeguard its own security, Russian agencies reported. The statement argued that the visa requirement does not violate international law, and that extending it to the inhabitants of the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be tantamount to imposing on them an economic blockade that could have serious humanitarian consequences.