Russia "targeting Georgians for deportation" -memo

MOSCOW, Oct 17:Rights activists today said they had obtained a leaked order from a Russian city police chief instructing officers to single out Georgians illegally resident in Russia for deportation.

The memo emerged as the European Union urged Russia to end the harassment of Georgians on its soil and a Georgian citizen died in Moscow from an asthma attack as he was waiting to be sent home in the latest round of deportations. Moscow severed transport links with Tbilisi and expelled hundreds of Georgians after a spying row touched off deep-seated tensions between Russia and Georgia, an ex-Soviet state aggressively asserting its independence from its former master.

Russian officials say the deportations have been in strict accordance with the law and they have been targeted at all illegal immigrants, not just Georgians. The leaked memo, from the chief of police in St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region, ordered police to ''carry out a wide-scale operation to expose and deport the maximum number of Georgian citizens living illegally in Russia''. It was not immediately possible to verify if the memo was authentic.

A St Petersburg police spokesman refused to comment. Svetlana Gannushkina, of the Civil Aid rights group, said it had been leaked to her group by a sympathiser. The memo said the operation was to run from October 2 until October 4. It carried the signature of Major-General Vladislav Piotrovsky, acting chief of police for St Petersburg and the Leningrad region. ''This is being carried out selectively towards Georgian citizens,'' said Gannushkina. ''Are there not people from other countries living in Russia illegally?'' Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers live in Russia without the correct documents. Those from other ex-Soviet republics vastly outnumber Georgians.

DEPORTEE DEATH

The Kremlin says it wants to stop a dangerous military build-up by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. He wants to take his country into NATO and the European Union and shake off Russian influence, a drive that causes deep concern in Moscow. Saakashvili has also riled Moscow -- and alarmed Western diplomats who do not want tensions to escalate -- with his uncompromising anti-Kremlin rhetoric. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets EU leaders in Finland this week, with the Georgia row likely to be on the agenda. In a strongly worded statement, EU foreign ministers urged Moscow ''not to pursue measures targeting Georgians in the Russian Federation'' and expressed ''grave concern'' at Russian economic sanctions.

A Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tengiz Togonidze, 47, a chronic asthma sufferer, died at Moscow's Domodedovo airport as he waited to fly to Tbilisi. He was detained in St Petersburg where he was kept in a holding centre for several days and then put on a bus to Moscow, a distance of about 700 km, said the spokeswoman. ''He died in the arms of a Georgian consular official,'' the spokeswoman, Nino Kajaia, told Reuters. ''While on the bus, he asked the driver to make a stop to have a breath of fresh air, but his requests were ignored. ... This is just outrageous.'' Airport and immigration officials confirmed the death but gave no details.

A Moscow court official said on Monday deportation orders were handed down on 682 Georgians between October 5 and October 13, roughly half of all illegal immigrants deported this month.

REUTERS