Russia suspended postal and travel links with Georgia Monday and is considering new sanctions after four Russian officers were charged by Tbilisi with espionage last week. They were later released but the row between the two countries continues.
"A twenty-four-hour working regime has been put in place at the Embassy of Georgia to the Russian Federation to ensure the interests of Georgian citizens are effectively protected, and to provide them with urgent response and assistance. Diplomats will remain on duty around the clock," a statement said.
Russia evacuated most of its embassy staff and almost all family members from Georgia last week over safety concerns as the dispute worsened.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry condemned a rally outside its Moscow embassy Tuesday, when several youth activists allegedly threw eggs at the building. "Such aggressive rallies seriously jeopardize the normal functioning of the embassy and the safety of its employees," it said.
Experts say about around one-fifth of Georgia's 4.4 million people work and earn money in Russia, about 300,000 of them illegally, according to the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament.
"According to last year's data, $350 million was taken [by Georgian immigrants] from Russia officially, but according to unofficial data the sum totals about $1 billion," Borys Gryzlov said Wednesday.
Russia's Interior Ministry has shut down two Moscow casinos allegedly controlled by the Georgian mafia, each of which earned around $1 million daily.
The ministry said Wednesday the centrally located Golden Palace casino, which the ministry said is controlled by the same Georgian crime bosses who own the Kristal casino shut down yesterday, was closed by the ministry's economic security department for numerous violations of gambling laws, including tax and health codes.
Moscow also hinted it might suspend banking operations and money transfers between the two countries as a way of stopping illegal capital flows, which it said are ultimately used for the militarization of the South Caucasus region.
