#Georgia_Russia: The country is receiving more and more fleeing Russian men (who are refugees). So far, more than 100,000 Russians have entered Georgia, many of whom may be former tourists. The Georgian authorities did not introduce any restrictions, no visa is required.⤵️
Only Russians with a certain economic status have a passport to leave Russia. So the Russian men who chose Georgia as a refuge are well educated, but not rich enough and not directly affected by Western sanctions to leave Russia during the previous waves in 2022.⤵️
Georgia is facing great pressure. For comparison: Moldova (2.6 million population) hosts some 80,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled Russian aggression, while Georgia is currently hosting more than 100,000 Russian men (3.7 million inhabitants + thousands of Russians from the⤵️
previous waves this year). Int organisations, mainly the EU, do not offer any support. One reason is that the Russian men, unlike most Ukrainian refugees, left Russia with around €9,000 per person. The Georgian govt is in a very unstable situation. It is already under public⤵️
pressure for missing out on EU candidate status (from the effects of Ivanishvili’s informal governance). The current refugee crisis (because it is a crisis and the fleeing Russians are refugees) is testing the capabilities of the Georgian dream. Without int support, ⤵️ 
Tbilisi will find it difficult to absorb this influx of people, even if many of them have money. The Georgian economy has been recovering from the pandemic, but still the unemployment rate was around 20% year-on-year last November. Some Georgian voices argue that the govt⤵️
should prioritize national security over supporting fleeing Russians and that, according to them, they should stay in Russia to fight the Putin regime and not run away from this responsibility.⤵️
The Russian refugees represent one of the most serious challenges for the Georgian government at the moment.
The number of Russians entering Georgia has increased by 50% compared to pre-mobilization numbers. Up to 10,000 Russians. In February-July, 562,525 Russian citizens arrived in Georgia and 478,715 left. So we have about 83,000 Russians (men, women, children) who stayed in⤵️
https://twitter.com/kshoshiashvili/status/1574757805340479488
Georgia. On top of that, more than 100,000 arrived in the last week. This means that Georgia could have reached the 200,000 Russians who will reside for the time being. The Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs claims that everything is under control.⤵️
This is not bad to keep the situation stable, but I did not hear about any type of preparedness effort (crisis management, resilience) by the Georgian govt to handle a refugee crisis (which was a risk on the radar for many months).
More statistics about the influx of Russians in Georgia.
https://twitter.com/KShoshiashvili/status/1574764708615405569
More details about the crossing of the Georgian borders: 1) intelligence is present at the checkpoints; 2) only Russians who meet the conditions are allowed to enter (purpose of stay, amount of money, dates of departure); 3) those who do not meet the criteria are refused entry ⤵️
More videos from the queueing fleeing Russian men on the border with Georgia 👇
https://twitter.com/pechenkaebat/status/1575048668264427520
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