Russia on Friday deported a planeload of Georgians it said were in the country "illegally" but Tbilisi said the Kremlin had now added the ethnic cleansing to its sanctions against its pro-Western neighbor.
A Reuters reporter saw one woman drop to her knees and kiss the tarmac. Russian officials said they were expelled because they did not have the right documents, but several showed reporters their passports with valid Russian entry visas.
"It is terrible, we feel ... not like humans," said a deportee, who gave her name as Irina.
Up to a million Georgians live and work in Russia.
"What Russia is doing ... is a soft form of ethnic cleansing," Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told reporters
"We have no desire to irritate the Russians. Our wish is just to be free and independent," he said in an interview in France's Le Figaro newspaper.
Georgia said the Kremlin's measures have snowballed into an anti-Georgian witch-hunt.
One of Russia's best-selling authors Grigory Chkhartishvili, told Reuters tax police were investigating him. He linked the move to state-wide hysteria directed at ethnic Georgians.
Agencies
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