Russian blogger Alexei Romanov denied entry to Georgia
Russian blogger denied entry to Georgia
Russian blogger Alexei Romanov writes on his Facebook page that he was not allowed to enter Georgia. According to the blogger, he traveled to Georgia through Armenia, but at the Georgian border he was denied entry into the country.
Romanov says, after a 6-hour wait, he was handed a document stating denial of entry to Georgia.
“The document lists all possible reasons for refusal: incomplete set of documents; incorrect documents; threat to state security posed by the person’s stay in Georgia; the person has not paid the fine, he/she has no insurance, his/her stay is undesirable for reasons of international policy, he/she has violated the rules for foreigners in Georgia or is about to violate them; and more.
But all this is not about me.
I was denied entry to Georgia for a reason that was formulated as follows: “Other cases provided for by the legislation of Georgia”.
But seriously, I think the reason lies in my reports, which I filmed in Georgia in fall, when people went to rallies demanding release of Mikheil Saakashvili from prison. For one Georgian oligarch, part-time shadow ruler of the country, Misha is the main pain in the neck.
Alexei Romanov left Russia in 2016 and moved to Georgia with his family. The blogger explained that he left Russia due to pressure from the government, and stated that his persecution was connected with the creation of an Internet channel critical of the authorities. Romanov returned to Russia in 2019.
In 2020, Aleksey Romanov was arrested in Khabarovsk on the charges of an administrative offense: violation of the rules for holding mass events.
On his YouTube channel, he covered the protests caused by the arrest of the region’s governor Sergei Furgal.
It bears mentioning that on June 16, Georgia did not allow Insu Lander, a blogger from Kabardino-Balkaria, who is being prosecuted in Russia, to cross the border.
When Lander tried to cross the border, she was detained by Georgian border guards, taken to the office and interrogated for two hours. Finally, they issued a document stating that she was denied permission to cross the border “for other reasons.”
In the recent months, many Kremlin critics from Russia and other countries have been denied entry to Georgia without explanation.
On March 5, a journalist from the Russian opposition TV channel Dozhd, Mikhail Fishman, told the details of his unsuccessful trip to Georgia. He was not allowed to enter the country and was sent back from Tbilisi International Airport. Fishman wasn’t given any explanation as to the reasons of the refusal.
On January 31, Russian oppositionist Dmitry Gudkov was not allowed into Georgia. Before that, Russian politician Lyubov Sobol and journalist Ilya Azar, as well as Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon, were not allowed to enter the country.
David Frankel, a journalist from the Russian independent activist media group Mediazona, was also barred from entering Georgia.
In addition, several representatives of Russian opposition parties, who do not conduct public activities and whose names are not known to the general public, were not allowed into Georgia without explanation. Neither law enforcement agencies nor the government of Georgia give any comments on this matter.
Russian blogger denied entry to Georgia
