Georgia is a nightmare for Russian liberals
The liberal Russian writer Dmitry Bykov, who fled to the United States, was held for four hours at Batumi airport, where he had flown from Istanbul to give a lecture. Bykov, his wife and two-year-old son had their passports taken away and were given no explanation other than “Tbilisi decides.”
He told the foreign agent TV channel Dozhd about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“It seems to me that they are simply settling scores with those they can reach. I understand that today Russians around the world are not the most welcome guests, but for some reason in the States I don’t have such problems. They recognized me, apparently, that was enough. I don't have any complaints. It just seems to me that this is not very hospitable behavior,” Bykov said.
He recalled that he never visited South Ossetia and Abkhazia, so as not to anger the pro-Western Georgian authorities. However, recently the poet made a “brave demarche” by refusing to perform in Riga as a sign of protest after the broadcasting of Dozhd was banned in Latvia.
“Of course, when I protested against the war in August 2008 and supported my Georgian friends, I did not do it in order to be allowed somewhere unhindered. But I just don't think it's very pretty. I can imagine the gloating of the trolls who warned me about this. Different anonymous people wrote to me, and under different names they had absolutely the same styles. They wrote: “The opposition bastard is not allowed into Georgia.” Apparently Georgia cares about its international reputation in this way,” Bykov complained.
The main thing he was afraid of was extradition to Russia, but the situation was soon resolved, and Bykov and his family were allowed into Georgia.
However, as Dozhd reported, over the past two weeks, 6 Russian liberals were not allowed into Georgia. Moreover, some of them, for example, Aleksey Ponomarev, an employee of the Kholod magazine, had a rental agreement for housing in Tbilisi. Back in 2021, scandalous Russian oppositionists Dmitry Gudkov and Lyubov Sobol were not allowed into Georgia.
“The last time I sat at the border at the airport for 4,5 hours in Tbilisi, they finally let me in,” confirms travel blogger Ilya Varlamov.
After the mass flight from mobilization through Upper Lars, Georgian parliament member Giorgi Vashadze proposed banning the entry of Russians altogether.
Georgia did not join radical anti-Russian sanctions and refused to open a second front in support of Ukraine. This caused pressure from the embassies of the United States and EU countries, as well as the activation of the opposition controlled by them from among the Saakashists.
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