MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is considering political asylum requests from two Georgian journalists, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
In September, the founder of Georgia's ITNexclusive news agency, Levan Gudadze, requested political asylum in Russia, and earlier in October former Imedi television producer Badri Afanasyev also made a formal asylum request.
"Both requests will be carefully reviewed," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the process may take up to three months.
The ministry said the requests were "not surprising" in view of the "anti-democratic character of the ruling regime in Georgia and especially the serious problems with freedom of the press" in the country.
The ministry said that on September 3, Gudadze with his wife, two-year-old daughter and mother crossed the border between Georgia and South Ossetia and requested asylum from border guards.
"Levan used to run three information websites which were closed by the authorities one after another. He received threatening calls and letters that is why we decided to leave the country," the journalist's mother said.
A spokesman for the security services in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan said that Badri Afanasyev had applied for political asylum upon arrival from Azerbaijan at a checkpoint in south Russia's Dagestan on October 15.
Afanasyev, 53, said he had been persecuted in Georgia for his association with late opposition figure and former Imedi owner, Badri Patarkatsishvili. The tycoon died in Britain in 2008.
In August 2008, Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war over the former Georgian republic of South Ossetia, after which Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic.
