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In 2005, the Russian Federation launched a full scale economic blockade against Georgia. The Kremlin chose to target the field of Georgian economy that is most dependent on the Russian market - agriculture.
In December 2005, Russia’s Rosselkhoznadzor, a Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, carrying out functions on control and supervision in the field of veterinary science, banned the import of Georgian vegetable products for “violating the standards of microbiological composition.”
One month on from this decision, on January 22, 2006, Georgia found itself facing another blockade when the main gas pipeline exploded in the North Caucasus. This disrupted all the thermal power stations, the HPPs could not withstand the load, and as a result, entire Georgia was left without power for days. After the energy blockade, Georgia decided to reduce Russia's influence on natural gas once and for all, and as a result, Russia lost its one main area of leverage against Georgia.
A month after the pipeline explosion, in March 2006, Russia expanded its embargo area and banned wine imports from Georgia. At the time, 20% of total wine exports from Georgia, a value of $153 million, were sent to Russia. As a result of the blockade, the wine export was halved in the first half of 2006. The embargo was a sign for Georgian entrepreneurs to look elsewhere for custom and, as a result of much work, the Russian share in Georgian wine export fell to 2%.
After the detection of Russian spies in Georgia, on October 6, 2006, a Russian cargo plane landed at Tbilisi International Airport with thousands of Georgian citizens who had been expelled from Russia. They were the first of 4,634 citizens of Georgia to be deported. Because of this, 13 years later, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demanded Russia pay compensation to the Georgian victims of the deportation.
On October 2, 2006, the Russian Federation suspended postal, automobile, aviation, marine and railway connections with Georgia. With this step, Russia violated the International Civil Aviation Convention, as well as a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements signed with Georgia.
