Russian activist Igor Miglani, who works on a project supporting Ukraine, was denied entry to Georgia. The information was reported by “Nastoyashcheye Vremya,” citing “Kholod” as a source.
One of the project’s co-authors, Evgeny Lyamin, said that Miglani arrived in Georgia from Germany on the night of March 28 but was detained at passport control. After several hours of waiting, Miglani was verbally denied entry into the country, but no official document explaining the denial was provided.
Egor Kuroptev, the director of the South Caucasus Bureau of the “Free Russia” foundation, also wrote on Facebook that Igor Miglani was detained at Tbilisi airport for 15 hours and was not allowed to enter Georgia, like many other activists before him.
“In Georgia, Igor has been working on the Emigration for Action project supporting Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Thanks to Igor and the entire project team, more than eight thousand refugees from Ukraine have received medical assistance. Does this pose a threat to Georgia’s interests? I am sure it does not,” Kuroptev wrote.
Over the past two years, many Kremlin critics from Russia and other countries have been denied entry into Georgia without explanation.
Among them are Russian human rights activist Daryana Gryaznova, journalist from the channel “Dozhd” (Rain) Alexandra Shevchenko, Russian activist and human rights defender Anna Rivina, photojournalist Vasily Krestyaninov, Kabardino-Balkarian blogger Insa Lander, who is facing criminal prosecution in Russia, Russian opposition figure Dmitry Gudkov, Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon, and many others.
Several members of Russian opposition parties who are not engaged in public activities and whose names are unknown to the general public have been denied entry to Georgia without explanation as well.
Neither law enforcement agencies nor the government of Georgia comment on this matter.
