![]() “There have been more than a few cases of Georgian government or police deporting or turning away prominent Russian democratic opposition members,” says Giorgi Kandelaki, a former MP for the European Georgia party. And the government, led by the Georgian Dream party, has been accused by critics of secretly collaborating with the Kremlin. Russia’s much-feared state security service, the FSB, has reportedly sent their people to Georgia to keep tabs on Russian exiles. It’s not just overzealous bouncers that make Russians in Tbilisi nervous. Ksenia Sobchak, a socialite turned activist who ran against Putin in the 2018 presidential race, refused to comply, telling her 9.4 million Instagram followers that “unfortunately not everyone understands that being against militarism and violence does not mean wanting to glorify a foreign state.” Few bars have such stringent-critics say Russophobic-rules, but rumors that certain clubs don’t let in Russian passport holders abound in the émigré community. Russians are forced to apply for a “visa” to enter by scanning a QR code and checking boxes that they’ve said “glory to Ukraine,” condemned Russian aggression, promised not to speak Russian, and recognized that 20% of Georgia is still occupied by Russia. Meanwhile, Daedena, a bar on the bank of Tbilisi’s Mkvari river, asks visitors for their passports on entry. When TIME visits, on the day Putin announces the draft, it looks like a hip Berlin bar but with Soviet-style carpet hanging on the wall, the Russian songs blasting from the speakers, and stickers saying, “Russians against the war” in the toilets. One popular hangout for people like Smirnov is Koshini, set up by an opposition blogger. Read More: Why Thousands of People Are Fleeing Russia Now We moved the entire editorial board,” he says, referring to the independent Russian website DOXA News, where he works. “We wanted to do antiwar protests in Russia, but it clearly wasn’t working. One of those who arrived shortly after the war began was Phillip Smirnov, 21, a left-wing journalist who says he left Russia in disgust. With Europe off-limits to most Russians-and because Georgia has long granted one-year visas on arrival to Russians-Tbilisi has emerged as one of the main destinations for exiles. The latest wave of arrivals join a community of 40,000 Russians who have come since February. Social media manager Irakli Khekhelashvili is livid that he had to move back in with his parents after his landlord raised his rent. Landlords want to make more money from the comparatively rich Russians, many of whom come from the Moscow middle class. Prices have skyrocketed while salaries have stayed the same. The roads and subways are far busier than usual. Not just “F-CK Russia,” but “Russki go home.” As well as memories of the brief 2008 Russo-Georgian war-which ended in a crushing defeat for Georgia and the loss of territorial control in the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions-ordinary Georgians have pragmatic reasons not to want more Russians here. Streets in the capital, Tbilisi, are littered with anti-Russian graffiti. Dudaev’s motivations for leaving are simple: “I don’t want to kill people.”īut these exiles aren’t exactly welcome in Georgia. (Gazmanov and Dudaev are pseudnomys given concerns for their safety.) He also says he witnessed discrimination against non-ethnic Russians like himself, who were taken aside for questioning by Georgian border guards, and that some were turned away despite a conscription drive that disproportionately impacts ethnic minorities. Many children go hungry,” says Magamed Dudaev, an IT technician from the predominately Muslim Ingushetia region in southwestern Russia. “It’s really difficult to see how hard it is for women with children.
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