Russia Steps Up Sanctions Against Georgia

Russia deported more than 100 ethnic Georgians accused of entering the country illegally and ordered some Moscow schools to compile lists of children with Georgian surnames to detect illegal residents, officials said Friday.

Russia and its fellow former Soviet republic have been locked in a bitter dispute since Georgia arrested four Russian officers last week on charges of spying. Despite their release, Moscow has imposed a variety of sanctions on Georgia.

President Vladimir V. Putin said Friday that Georgia was to blame for the dispute, and he spurned Western calls to lift the sanctions.

Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry, said 132 Georgians had been deported.

Other Georgians complained of detentions and harassment.

Inna Bashkirova said her brother, Shota Georgadze, 32, was detained outside the Georgian Consulate in Moscow on suspicion of lacking a valid residency permit. Bashkirova said her brother was married to a Russian and had all his documents in order, but police accused him of faking the paperwork and were preparing to deport him.

“They’re crushing people, they’re destroying families,” Bashkirova said, on the verge of tears.

On Thursday, Russia said it would abolish quotas allowing a number of Georgians to obtain residency and work permits each year.

Several Georgian-run casinos, restaurants and other businesses have been raided and closed for alleged regulatory violations.

Alexander Gavrilov, a spokesman for Moscow City Hall’s education department, said some but not all Moscow schools had received the request for lists of children with Georgian names Thursday. He criticized the police action.

Nina Zubareva, an official from school No. 1289 in northern Moscow, said: “There are very few pupils with Georgian surnames in our school and we have honored the police request. I must say that our pupils are Russian citizens and have Moscow registration. Their families have been living in Moscow for years.”

In an interview with Echo of Moscow radio, Moscow police spokesman Valery Gribakin denied that authorities had asked for the names. But the newspaper Kommersant said a high-ranking police official confirmed that the request had been made.