One of the best things about being the editor of this blog is that all kinds of people email me interesting stuff to post that often gets missed by the media. Case in point, I’ve exchanged a few emails with a reader from Tbilisi, who has notified me of some interesting events happening there this week, concerning not Russia’s military activities in the country, but rather the businesses and economic interests which piggybacked across the border with the tanks to begin conducting business within Georgian sovereign territory, yet not officially subject to its legal jurisdiction or regulatory oversight. We report this here because it may be of interest to many of our international law readers who are interested in jurisdictional and regulatory questions in the context of invasion and occupation. Today at a press conference, Giorgi Arveladze, Chairman of the Georgian National Communications Commission (photographed), announced that his agency has issued a fine of more than $350,000 (500,000 Georgian Lari) to the Russian mobile phone operator MegaFon, which stands accused of illegally operating on the Georgian radiofrequency spectrum without a license. According to the press release from the Commission, MegaFon had previously been operating without license in several areas of South Ossetia, but expanded this coverage following the invasion. The release also comments that “The Commission also draws attention at the circumstances that, considering the “Megafon”’s economic intervention during the open and direct Russian occupation since August 7, 2008, the company might be involved in the Russian political and military plans. We believe that the illegal and unjustified participation of the private company in the political events is unacceptable and reprehensive.” See after the jump for maps and comments from Arveladze.