The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili today has visited Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, to hold top-level meetings with her Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu and Moldovan Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu.
Following the meeting, Zourabichvili held a joint press conference with Moldova’s Sandu. President of Georgia began her address by highlighting that her visit marks the first by a Georgian President in 12 years.
During the conference Zourabichvili talked about existed visa regime with the Russian Federation. In her words, she does not exclude that Georgia should revise the conditions of the visa regime with Russia adding that the government should make a decision together with the society.
Pursuant to the President, mass flow of Russian citizens into Georgia is definitely a challenge, but not a threat.
"The entry of Russian citizens into Georgia is really a challenge. I would not say it is a threat, but it is a challenge. Among the arrivals are former citizens of Georgia who come to Georgia because of the situation in Russia. But there are also Russian citizens who come to Georgia for various reasons. The main thing here is assuring the public that all the control mechanisms are used, so that the danger does not arise. In this regard, more communication with the society is needed for informing them that all possible threats and issues are actually considered by the authorities and all measures are taken.
Moreover, it is not excluded that we will have to review the visa regime, which is quite liberal under current conditions and which may be less acceptable in the conditions of this aggression," said President Zourabichvili.
To recall, on September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization, calling up to 300,000 reservists for deployment to Ukraine, a move seen as an escalation in the war that began in February. Following Putin’s statement, the traffic flow towards Georgia significantly increased. The queue to leave Russia for Georgia stretched for more than 20 kilometers, it took 3-4 days to cross the border. According to the Georgian Interior Ministry, as many as 9,642 Russians came to Georgia on Sept. 28-29, and 5,448 of those later left the country. Some 6,109 citizens from the Russian Federation crossed the Georgian state border in total from all border checkpoints, whereas 5,186 Russian citizens left the territory of the country.
Part of Georgian society, including the opposition party “Lelo” has been demanding a tougher regime for entry into Georgia for citizens of Russia and Belarus, since the first day of the war in Ukraine.
