Moscow
Russia this week punished the former Soviet republic of Georgia for temporarily detaining four Russian military officers accused of being spies. The Kremlin has canceled all flights and trains to Georgia and blocked all the roads. Not even the mail can get through. The Russian legislature is also considering a bill that would ban money transfers from Russia to Georgia. That measure would hurt the more than 1 million ethnic Georgians who work in Russia and wire money home to their families. Georgia, which underwent the democratic “Rose Revolution” in 2003, has been trying to disentangle itself from Russia and move closer to NATO, but Russia is not making that easy. Russia controls Georgia’s gas lines and electricity grid and supports ethnic Russian separatists in two Georgian provinces.
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