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Georgia President: visa-free entrance for Russians may be reconsidered

The visa-free entrance for Russian nationals may be reconsidered, Salome Zourabichvili, the president of Georgia, said as she gave a joint press conference with her Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu in Chisinau.

“We cannot rule out that the visa-free entrance [for Russians], which is pretty liberal in today’s situation, may be reconsidered. Our government and our society will decide this,” Zourabishvili said.

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said in September that the authorities saw no necessity in reconsidering the respective regulation.

“There are no grounds for reconsidering the visa-free regime for Russian nationals in Georgia which the previous administration adopted. We see no risks in Russians being here, so there is no necessity in reconsidering this,” he said.

Russians may enter Georgia visa-free since 2012 and stay up to 365 days straight.

Vladimir Putin announced “partial mobilisation” in Russia on 21 September, which prompted Russians to leave the country in large crowds, with Georgia being one of the most popular destinations. A line of cars many kilometres long formed in front of the only checkpoint on the Russia-Georgia border soon thereafter. Approximately 10 thousand Russian nationals enter Georgia daily, the country’s Interior Ministry reports.