By Daisy Ayliffe - 2nd October 2006
The EU has called on Russia to lift sanctions on Georgia as a spy row threatens to spiral out of control.
Moscow has imposed border, postal and bank services blockades on Georgia - even though Tbilisi returned the four soldiers it arrested last week on spying charges.
On Monday Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja urged both sides to show restraint.
“Hold back from steps that could be seen as provocation,” he insisted.
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner appealed to Russia to lift sanctions on Georgia.
“We do hope that Russia very, very soon lifts these sanctions because sanctions do not, particularly in this case, lead anywhere”, she told reporters.
The row between Russia and its neighbour was sparked by the detention of four Russian soldiers on spying charges.
At the weekend Russian president Vladimir Putin described the detentions as “state terrorism with hostage taking.”
Georgia returned the men to Moscow on Monday night in what diplomats described as a “goodwill” handover.
But Russia insisted the arrests were a “deliberate provocation” and soon after Georgia’s decision to return the officers, Moscow announced a transport blockade.
Boris Gryzlov, the Speaker of the Russian parliament added that legislation would also be introduced to enable the government to ban banking operations with certain countries.
But Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili hit back at the sanctions, insisting his people will not be treated as second class citizens by Moscow.
“The message of Georgia to our great neighbour Russia is: enough is enough,” he said.
“We want to have good relations, we want to be constructive, we want to have dialogue, but we can’t be treated as some second-rate backyard to some kind of re-emerging empire.”
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.