Georgia denies Russian experts entrance to country

Two Russian experts who planned to hold a meeting with their Georgian colleagues on December 1-3 were refused entrance into the country at Tbilisi International Airport, national media reported.

Two Russian experts who planned to hold a meeting with their Georgian colleagues on December 1-3 were refused entrance into the country at Tbilisi International Airport, national media reported.

The experts were expected to hold talks on Russian and Georgian relations and cooperation perspectives.

When Nikolay Silayev, senior researcher of the Center for Caucasian Research at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and Sergei Mironenko, director of the State Archive, Moscow, were refused entry, the remaining members of the delegation decided to support them and flew back to Moscow via Yerevan, Armenia.

There are no direct flights between Russia and Georgia after diplomatic ties between the two countries were cut off following a five-day war in August 2008, which began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in a bid to bring it back under central control.

Two weeks after the end of the war, Russia recognized the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. Besides Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have also recognized the republics' independence.

TBILISI, December 1 (RIA Novosti)