Opposition calls to impose visa requirements for Russians aim to drag Georgia into war - ruling party MP
Ruling Georgian Dream party MP Anri Okhanashvili on Thursday rejected the opposition’s proposal to impose visa requirements for Russian and Berarusian citizens. Photo: Anri Okhanashvili’s Facebook page
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Calls by the Lelo for Georgia opposition party to impose visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens serve the goal of dragging Georgia into Russia’s war in Ukraine, ruling Georgian Dream party MP Anri Okhanashvili said on Thursday in remarks that also reminded the opposition that the visa requirement with Russia had been lifted by the former President Mikheil Saakashvili while in office.
In his remarks for local media outlets, Okhanashvili suggested that Georgian state bodies were working “round the clock” to ensure peace and stability in the country amid ongoing hostilities in Ukraine, stressing that imposing visa requirements for Russian citizens “was against the interests of the Georgian people”.
Speaking about the “radical opposition”, Okhanashvili said that “their [the part of the opposition’s] earlier moves and proposals had also served their own goals to draw Georgia into the war”.
In its statement earlier this week, the Lelo for Georgia party said that the “uncontrolled influx” of Russian and Belarusian citizens to Georgia on the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine, was a “serious security challenge to Georgia '' amid continuous occupation of Georgian territories by Russia.
The Georgian Dream officials have rejected the reports over the "seriously increased" influx of Russian citizens to Georgia. Photo: Mikheil Gvasalia.
In its report released on Wednesday, Transparency International Georgia stated that 240,000 Russian tourists have entered Georgia over the past seven months, which was 2.5 times more than in the same period of the last year.
Dismissing the reports over the increased inflow of Russian tourists, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said that “comparing this year’s figures with those in the pandemic, when state borders were closed or other restrictions were imposed, is wrong and misleading”.
Russia unilaterally introduced the visa regime with Georgia in December 2000 to “prevent terrorism threats”, claiming that thousands of refugees and fighters had fled from Chechnya to Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge during the second Chechen war (1999-2000).
Georgia suspended diplomatic relations with Russia following the Russia-Georgia 2008 war and cancelled visa-free movement with the neighbouring country. However, Tbilisi lifted the restriction starting March 1, 2012, while Georgians still need a visa to visit Russia.
The citizens living in Georgia’s Russian-occupied territories should know the Government’s position that the country’s territorial integrity can only be restored through peaceful means and not through use of force, Sozar Subari, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, said at a Parliament plenary sitting today.
The Georgian Government remains committed to the policy of peaceful de-occupation and will resist “all provocations” aimed at escalating a new military confrontation with “our Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers and sisters,” Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said on Monday.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said the Georgian Government would “always work” to ensure restoration of its territorial integrity and unification of “sisters and brothers” across the occupation line, but the objective would not be accomplished through war.
Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze on Wednesday said the recent initiative of the Lelo for Georgia opposition party, which called on the Government to impose visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens to prevent security threats on the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine, would have a negative impact on domestic tourism.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday rejected the calls of the Lelo for Georgia opposition party for imposing visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens to prevent security threats in Georgia on the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine by calling it a “deliberate, xenophobic campaign that is absolutely disgraceful”.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday called on the public to disassociate themselves from a “discriminatory campaign” against Russian citizens in Georgia, claiming the “sole purpose” of speculation on number of Russian nationals entering the country and calls for imposing visa requirement for them was “to turn Georgia into a second front” amid the war in Ukraine, and adding xenophobia and chauvinism “has never been and will never be” a part of Georgian culture.
Anri Okhanashvili, a ruling Georgian Dream party MP and the Head of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, said on Friday denying travellers entry to Georgia for their nationality was “wrong”, in comments on recent calls by the domestic opposition to impose visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens on the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Levan Davitashvili, the Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, on Monday slammed the country’s ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili and former members of the United National Movement Government for their calls to authorities to impose visa requirements for Russian citizens, accusing the opposition of aiming to hinder domestic tourism development.
Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday said the country would “not start a war against Russia” and “does not get involved in the Russia-Ukraine war”, stressing the “influx” of visitors to Georgia in the wake of the conflict's outbreak was welcomed.
Ruling Georgian Dream party MP Mikheil Sarjveladze said on Tuesday there was “nothing alarming” in the number of Russian businesses registered in Georgia over the past five months, in comments of the latest data of the National Statistics Office that showed 7,459 Russian businesses registered in the country between March 1 and August 1.
Gogita Todradze, the Head of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, said on Wednesday the activities of the majority of recently registered Russian businesses in Georgia were unknown as they had not started operations, in comments of the latest data of the agency that showed 7,459 Russian businesses registered in the country between March 1 and August 1, with only four of the entities indicating their activities in their registration.
The head of the State Security Service of Georgia, Grigol Liluashvili, on Friday said the law enforcement officers have been trying to “filter out unwanted guests” and noted there have been “zero” crime statistics of incoming tourists.