Anna Rivina, declared a “foreign agent” in Russia, not allowed into Georgia

Anna Rivina barred from Georgia

Russian women’s rights activist Anna Rivina, founder of the No to Violence Foundation and declared a “foreign agent” in her country, was not allowed into Georgia, as confirmed by the Russian human rights publication Kholod.

The No to Violence Foundation helps women affected by violence. In 2020, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation included the foundation in a list of NGOs acting as “foreign agents”.

On February 10, 2023, Anna Rivina herself was declared a “foreign agent”, who, according to the Russian Ministry of Justice, “spreads negative information about the activities of state bodies, in particular the Ministry of Defense.”

Rivina has been living in Georgia for the last few months. She says that after returning to Tbilisi from Yerevan, she waited for a response from the border guards for almost three hours, but in the end was not allowed into the country and is now awaiting deportation.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has not offered any explanation.

MEP Viola von Cramon reacted to the incident, saying that it says a lot about the Georgian authorities:

“In the first nine months after the start of the war [in Ukraine], 1,274,006 Russian citizens have crossed the Georgian border. Many of them are still there. However, human rights activist Anna Rivina, who was recently declared a foreign agent by the Kremlin, was not allowed into the country. This says a lot about the government of Georgia,” Viola von Cramon writes on Twitter.

• Most Russian companies registered in Georgia after February
• “If they close the border, there will be only one way left – war.” Stories of refugees from Russia
• Georgia’s economic dependence on Russia is growing

In recent months many Kremlin critics from Russia and elsewhere have been denied entry to Georgia without explanation.

On September 5 Vasily Krestyaninov, a Russian photojournalist and Kremlin critic, was not allowed into Georgia.

On July 20, Russian blogger Alexei Romanov was not allowed to enter the country at a checkpoint in Sadakhlo on the border with Armenia.

On June 16, Georgia did not let Kabardino-Balkarian blogger Insu Lander through the border, against whom criminal prosecution continues in Russia.

When Lander tried to cross the border she was detained by Georgian border guards and interrogated for two hours. Then she was given a document which stated she was not allowed across “for other reasons.”

On March 5, Mikhail Fishman, a journalist from the Russian opposition television company Dozhd, spoke of his unsuccessful trip to Georgia. He was also not allowed to enter the country, being turned back at Tbilisi International Airport. No explanation was given.

On January 31, Russian oppositionist Dmitry Gudkov was not allowed into Georgia. Prior to this, Russian politician Lyubov Sobol and journalist Ilya Azar, as well as Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon, were not allowed into Georgia.

David Frenkel, a journalist from the Russian independent activist media group Mediazona, was also expelled from Georgia.

In addition, several representatives of Russian opposition parties who are not actively involved in Georgia, and not known to the general public, were barred from entering Georgia without explanation. Neither law enforcement nor the government have given any comment on this matter.