Journalists barred from entering Georgia

Two Russian journalists have been denied entry into Georgia. The two were part of a delegation from a joint Russian-Georgian commission on last year's war in the Caucasus.

The two journalists are the editor-in-chief of the Izvestiya newspaper, Vladimir Mamontov, and Maxim Shevchenko, a commentator for the Channel 1 television network, ITAR-TASS reports.

They were stopped at passport control in the airport of the capital Tbilisi and forced to return back to Russia.

Border guards claimed that the journalists had previously violated Georgian law by visiting Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

A third member of the delegation – a senior official of the RIA Novosti news agency, Alan Kasaev – was allowed in. According to Georgian authorities, he “did not violate Georgian laws and was granted Georgia’s entry visa on arrival at Tbilisi airport.”