GEORGIA REFUSES ENTRY TO TWO RUSSIAN JOURNALISTS
RIA Novosti
September 2, 2009
TBILISI
Georgian border guards refused on ednesday to let in two Russian
journalists, who were travelling as part of a delegation representing
a public commission on the consequences of last year’s Russia-Georgia
conflict.
RIA Novosti’s CIS and Baltic States Department chief, Alan Kasayev,
who is a member of the delegation, was allowed into the country but
said Maxim Shevchenko, an anchorman for Russia’s Channel 1 TV, and
Vladimir Mamontov, the editor-in-chief of the Izvestiya newspaper, were
not allowed through passport control on arrival at Tbilisi airport.
Shevchenko and Mamontov were forced to return on the next flight to
Armenia, as there have been no direct air routes between Russia and
Georgia since 2006. Flights were renewed for a few months in 2008
until last August’s war.
"A border control guard who didn’t identify himself said Shevchenko
and Mamontov could not be allowed into Georgia, citing Article 14 of
an unnamed law," Kasayev said.
The delegation was to meet with Georgian representatives in Tbilisi
on Thursday.
"The actions of Georgia’s border control have cast serious doubts
as to whether social dialogue can continue, as this delegation is
the only instrument that exists today to alleviate Georgian-Russian
relations," Kasayev said.
"I have no rational explanation for the actions of the border control
officials," he added.
The president of the media group Georgia Times, Malkhaz Tulashvili,
who is a member of the Georgian delegation, said the incident was a
"planned provocation aimed at disrupting the social committee’s work,
which certain people don’t like, as they do not want Georgia and
Russia to have normal and friendly relations."
Tulashvili said the incident was "an infringement of human rights,
freedom of movement and freedom of expression, which is guaranteed
by the Georgian Constitution."