Georgia denies entry to Mediazona journalist fleeing Russia amid Kremlin's crackdown on media

Mediazona journalist was denied entry to Georgia

David Frenkel, a journalist from the Russian independent media activist group Mediazona, has been barred from enter Georgia. His wife wrote about this on Twitter.

“We’ve spent 40 hours getting to the border, we’ve waited for 2 days for it to be opened after the threat of an avalanche, we’ve stayed at the Russian side for 8 hours, we waited for 14 (!) hours at the Georgian side – only for my husband, journalist David Frenkel, to be refused entry to Georgia with the wording “other reasons”, writes Varvara Mikhailova.

Frenkel himself says that the border guards did not know what to do, because they were “waiting for an answer from above.”

“I like that the Georgian authorities write that all refusals are accepted on the spot by border guards. They have been calling someone for 14 hours, shrugged their shoulders and sometimes even apologized saying that they themselves did not know anything and were waiting for an answer ‘from above’. Ultimately, we got a rejection. They didn’t feed us, but out of pity they let me stay on the sofa”, Frankel says.

• Are Russian citizens who flee their country welcome in Georgia?
• Gia Nodia: Georgia can only count on USA, Europe and the West if difficult times come

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

On March 5, Mikhail Fishman, a journalist of the Russian opposition TV channel Dozhd, spoke about the details of his canceled trip to Georgia. He was not allowed to enter the country and was sent back from Tbilisi International Airport. The reasons for the refusal at the border were not explained to Fishman.

On January 31, one of the leaders of the Russian opposition, Dmitry Gudkov, was not allowed into Georgia. Earlier, Russian politician Lyubov Sobol and journalist Ilya Azar, as well as Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon, were barred from entering Georgia.

In addition, representatives of several Russian opposition parties that do not conduct public activities and whose names are not known to the general public were denied entry into Georgia without explanation. Neither law enforcement agencies nor the government of Georgia give any comments on this matter.