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Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili: â€œRussia is pursuing ethnic cleansing policy against Georgiansâ€?

07 October 2006 09:57 (UTC +04:00)

APAâ€™s Georgia Bureau reports that Bezhuashvili said it is not xenophobia but ethnic cleansing. Russia raided Georgian-owned businesses in Moscow in a row over Tbilisiâ€™s arrest last month of four Russian soldiers on spying charges and deported 130 Georgians yesterday.
Georgian council general in Moscow Zurab Pataradze said mass deportation is illegal.
Russian authorities initiated checks of the businesses of the famous Georgian-born writer Grigory Chkhartishvili yesterday and Moscow police are investigating profits of the famous novelist Grigory Chkhartishvili, known under the pen name of Boris Akunin. Police demanded Chkhartishviliâ€™s publishers (Publishing House) to provide financial documents on the writer.
â€œIt is not an ordinary check-up. The publisher was told he was convicted of tax evasion and faces check-up because of publishing my books. Being a black national (Caucasian) has become very dangerous in Russia. The recent happenings will live in the memory of the nation even if the all sanctions are left. I hope for Russian-Georgian rapprochementâ€?, Grigory Chkhartishvili said. /APA/