Russian police hunt Georgians in schools

Schools in Moscow have been ordered to identify Georgian children to police as Russia's campaign of retaliation against its southern neighbor in an espionage dispute took a sinister new turn on Oct. 6. Police sent messages to schools, demanding lists of pupils with Georgian surnames so that the immigration status of their parents could be investigated. Children in Moscow are entitled to attend school even if their parents lack official residence permits. The action was disclosed as Russia deported 150 Georgians as illegal immigrants by plane from Moscow and President Vladimir Putin demanded a crackdown on foreign traders in food markets to protect "the native Russian population." Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, speaking after the deportations, said: "Tbilisi knows what it needs to do to restore our relations to a normal course. There are always diplomatic means and we obviously prefer them." Human rights groups accused Russian authorities of embarking on a racist campaign against Georgians in the country. Galina Kozhevnikova, from the non-governmental organization Sova, which monitors xenophobic crime, said: "They claim these measures to be based on the law, but they are clearly being selective and the result is ethnic discrimination. It's shameful and I can't understand why our leadership does not realize it's shameful." Police denied that they had sought the identity of pupils in schools. But the education department of Moscow City Council confirmed that some principals had received the demand. Alexandr Gavrilov, a council spokesman, criticized the action, saying: "If the law-enforcement bodies carry out work searching for illegal migrants it's their business, and there is no way schools must be involved in this process." Nina Zubareva, an official at school number 1289 in Moscow, admitted receiving a police request for a list of pupils with Georgian surnames. She said: "There are very few pupils with Georgian surnames in our school and we have honored the police request." The Kommersant newspaper quoted an unnamed senior police official as saying that the initiative had come from the Russian Interior Ministry. A celebrated Russian writer of Georgian descent said on Oct. 6 that he had become a target of the campaign against Georgians. Grigori Chkhartishvili, who is better known under his pen name, Boris Akunin, said that Russian authorities were scrutinizing his finances as part of anti-Georgian hysteria. "It's absurd. My family has lived in Moscow for a century. I don't speak Georgian," he said. Irina Bogat, head of the Zakharov publishing house, which issues Akunin's books, said that she had been summoned to a police financial crime division and interrogated about his "elevated revenues." Russia has imposed a series of punitive measures against Georgia to express displeasure at the arrest of four military officers last week as alleged spies. The sanctions were introduced despite the decision by President Mikheil Saakashvili to free the men in Tbilisi on Oct. 2 and expel them to Russia. Tensions between Georgia and Russia have risen steadily since Saakashvili came to power in the Rose Revolution of 2003. He has repeatedly annoyed Moscow by pursuing pro-Western policies, including membership of NATO. Russia cut all air, road, rail and sea communications with Georgia on Oct. 3 and suspended postal links. It has barred new visas for Georgians and threatened to outlaw money transfers. Casinos and restaurants owned by Georgians in Moscow have been raided by police and closed for alleged breaches of regulations.