Russia temporarily closes border with Azerbaijan, Georgia

MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has temporarily closed its borders with Azerbaijan and Georgia to all foreigners with the exception of CIS nationals, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta government daily said on Tuesday.
Under an August 12 government resolution, nationals from what Russia calls "the far abroad" will be "temporarily" banned from crossing Russia's border with the two ex-Soviet republics as part of "measures to prevent members of foreign terror organizations from crossing into Russia and to thwart the smuggling of arms."
The CIS is an alliance of all the former Soviet republics with the exception of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Turkmenistan is an associate member.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced on August 12 that Tbilisi would withdraw from the Russian-dominated organization amid a conflict with Moscow over breakaway South Ossetia. The Georgian parliament approved the decision two days later.