Georgia Fines Russian Operator for "Illegal Activities"

The former Soviet state of Georgia has accused Russian mobile operator, Megafon of illegally operating a network within its borders. The Georgian government has regularly accused Russia to seeking to annex part of its territory - the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - and the allegations against Megafon have only fueled the ongoing dispute between the two countries.

Georgia's telecoms regulator, the National Communications Commission (GNCC) has issued a fine of US$3,500 against the company. "The work of MegaFon without a license on the territory of Georgia may be considered a criminal activity," the regulator said in a statement.

For its part, Megafon has denied operating a network within Georgia and says that it cannot be held responsible if people near the border access its Russian network by buying prepay SIM cards. The region is extremely mountainous, so any phone signals leaking across the border are going to have a very limited range without some sort of booster platform within Georgia itself though.

"We are not carrying out any commercial activities in Georgia," said spokeswoman Marina Belasheva, although the regulator claims that the company is proactively selling SIM cards in South Ossetia.

The self-declared Republic of South Ossetia ceded from Georgia during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict early in the 1990s. Its independence has not been recognized by any United Nations-member state which continue to regard South Ossetia as part of Georgia. As a large percentage of South Ossetians are of Russian decent, the dispute over the region has lead to tensions between Russia and Georgia - leading to several allegations of military incursions into Georgia - which the Russians deny.

Posted to the site on 23rd June 2008