Following a diplomatic row with Georgia over the September arrest of four Russian officers in Tbilisi on espionage charges, Russian authorities cracked down on businesses thought to be related to the ethnic Georgian mafia in Russia.
As a result, at least three large casinos in Moscow were shut down, and scores of illegal immigrants from the South Caucasus state were deported. The move caused a wave of criticism from Georgia and international human rights advocates.
"I cannot approve of selective actions on ethnic grounds," Putin said, answering a question on measures against Georgian criminal groups in Russia. "On the contrary, I call on law enforcement agencies to abstain from such actions, and I consider them inadmissible."
But he said anti-crime measures must be conducted constantly, while the actions taken against Georgian criminals happened to stand out because of the attention the diplomatic row attracted.
He said Russian authorities deported 15,300 illegal immigrants from one of the former Soviet republics, about 13,400 people from another and only 5,000 illegal immigrants from Georgia.
"Consequently, talking about selective actions against Georgians is incorrect and untrue," the president said.
Russia has faced an inflow of illegal immigrants from struggling former Soviet republics since the collapse of the Soviet Union, resulting in the domination of immigrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as China and Vietnam, at food and clothes markets in Russia.
Related to ethnic criminal groups, they have brought with them an increase in crime and a wave of xenophobic sentiment in response.
"We must prioritize the interests of the native population of Russia on the labor market and in trade," Putin said.
