In Georgia, Russian émigrés see acquainted Kremlin ways | EUROtoday

We’ll name her Sofia. We met the 26-year-old girl, who prefers to stay nameless, in a café in Tbilisi’s fashionable Vera district, a favorite hang-out of the Georgian capital’s younger Russian neighborhood.

In good English, she tells how she “left Saint Petersburg – the most beautiful city in the world – almost two years ago, in the autumn of 2022. But in my mind, I’m still living in Russia.”

Her boyfriend, an IT specialist, works remotely for clients in Russia. Sofia gives English lessons and offers online help to Ukrainian refugees who have settled in the United States or Britain and wish to improve their English or write a CV.

She leads a life of exile, in short, surrounded by Russian friends who, like her, have fled Vladimir Putin’s regime and Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We demonstrated when Navalny was poisoned, then when he was imprisoned. Then there was the battle in Ukraine, and when partial mobilisation was decreed, we misplaced all hope. We left as a result of we felt we had been in peril. It was simply insufferable to remain there, battle was in every single place.”

A yr and a half later, the buildings of her adopted metropolis are lined in anti-Russian graffiti. At problem is a regulation designed to scale back “foreign influence” in Georgia, which protesters name the “Russian law”.

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Despite the demonstrations that introduced 1000’s of individuals onto the streets of Tbilisi to protest towards the regulation every night time for practically a month, the ruling social gathering accepted it in parliament on Tuesday.

This regulation is paying homage to laws that got here into power in Russia about ten years in the past which initially focused human rights NGOs financed by Western international locations and progressively became a robust device of political repression.

“In Russia, ordinary people have become foreign agents overnight,” explains Sofia. “It has nothing to do with foreign funding anymore. You can become a foreign agent if the government says you’re under the influence of foreign companies or individuals. There’s a popular joke going around that Karl Marx may have been a foreign agent.”

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The Georgians who took to the streets in enormous numbers to protest the adoption of this regulation worry that their nation is sliding in the direction of Russian-style rule by oligarchs and a dictator. “We fully support Georgians at this moment. The Russian government is horrible and is trying to impose its law here. I pray for the Georgians. I hope they can protect themselves and keep their independence,” she mentioned.

In one other native café frequented by exiled Russians, we met Yuri, 39, from Moscow. He was a part of an exodus of Russian males who left the nation after Putin ordered the mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September 2022 to replenish Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.

At a desk with two associates, between cigarettes and coffees, he tells us how he managed to maintain his job. “I work for a big Russian CCTV company. My boss didn’t object when I told him I was going to work remotely from abroad.”

With a closed expression, Yuri says he helps the demonstrators and has joined the marches on a number of events.

“Right now, what’s happening in Russia is frightening. I understand Georgians who want to move towards Europe. The people are extremely brave and they are protecting their future,” he says.

“I see Russian methods being repeated here: repression against demonstrators, imposing things on people. It’s happening little by little, and the results are very sad. In Russia today, anyone who even remotely opposes the government’s way of thinking is branded an agent of foreigners. It’s a fascist regime.”

Neither Sofia nor Yuri can think about returning to Russia for a very long time. “It would be dangerous and senseless. I don’t see how things could change. As long as things haven’t changed, it would be physically dangerous for me to go back to Russia,” says Yuri.  As for Sofia, she mentioned that if she had any hope of returning, it has been shaken because the assassination of distinguished opposition determine Alexei Navalny.

Businesses and a Russian neighborhood

Russian residents don’t want a visa to enter Georgia and are routinely granted a one-year residence allow. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Tbilisi shortly turned an simply accessible refuge attracting some 100,000 Russians. This estimate is predicated on knowledge revealed by Georgia’s ministry of inside affairs, which publishes the variety of arrivals and departures of Russian residents in Georgia, however the knowledge are imprecise.

The presence of Russian émigrés is clearly seen and has typically sparked controversy. Their sudden arrival has pushed up property costs within the Georgian capital and in a few of the Black Sea resort cities.

The variety of companies opened by Russian residents in Georgia because the begin of the battle in Ukraine is less complicated to gauge. According to figures revealed by the Georgian Business Registry, greater than 26,000 corporations had been registered in Georgia by Russian residents in 2022 and 2023.

Nearly all of those companies had been registered by people who find themselves self-employed, with 73 p.c concerned within the IT sector, 5 p.c in design and promoting, 4 p.c in catering and inns and a couple of p.c in actual property and development.

In Tbilisi, an estimated 200 bars and eating places have been opened by Russians within the final two years.

Irina Mir, 31, is a part of Tbilisi’s neighborhood of Russian entrepreneurs who fled the battle and proceed to pursue enterprise alternatives. In the upmarket Vake district, she invited us to fulfill her within the wine store she is about to open.

Pleased to speak to a Western journalist whereas her store is being refurbished, she was open about her Russian identification and keen about her enterprise pursuits: she has already arrange an actual property company, and her new store will showcase a number of wines that may even be bought utilizing NFTs or cryptocurrency. She provides that she has purchased land to construct an eco-village or spa just a few kilometres from Tbilisi.

After this upbeat presentation, Irina turns into extra subdued when she mentions her departure from Russia.

“I was living in Moscow and working in a very large real estate company. I took care of big operations, especially with Turkish companies,” she explains in a mix of Russian and English.

“I left Russia in May 2022, because I feel very close to the Ukrainians. I know a lot of people in Ukraine. This point of view is not very acceptable to the Russian people. It’s a bit dangerous for me to go back to Russia right now.”

Irina mourned Navalny’s demise and mentioned that “with Putin’s re-election, the situation will remain the same. It obviously won’t change for the better”.

She expresses her full assist for the Georgian demonstrators. “I’m impressed by these demonstrations, they give us hope because people want to choose their future. This is precisely what is not possible in Russia. Georgians are very courageous.”

Over a glass of wine, Irina praised Georgian hospitality. And when asked about the nationality of the investors interested in her projects in the country, she asserts that they are based in the European Union and speak Russian.

Opposition to war and business

Irina’s plans and projects are a reminder that Georgia has become more than a refuge for Russians fleeing the military draft and dictatorship. Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the former Soviet republic has also become a popular destination for Russian investment.

According to the National Bank of Georgia, $1.5 billion in Russian capital entered Georgia in 2023, four times the average for the previous 10 years. In 2022, the figure was over $2 billion, 5 times the 10-year average.

By refusing, like its neighbour Turkey, to adopt economic sanctions against Russia, Georgia has become a strategically important country for Moscow. The many companies set up by Russians in Georgia can help individuals and companies circumvent Western sanctions or repatriate funds to Russia.

After the law on “international brokers” was approved on Tuesday, it’s an open question as to whether Georgia, with its 3.7 million inhabitants, will be able to maintain a balance between its aspirations to join the EU and the demands of its bellicose Russian neighbour.

Russian exiles in Tbilisi are hoping for the best, and point to the calm and determination of the demonstrators. When Yuri was asked if he was frightened by the anti-Russian slogans and placards, he replied with a categorical “not“.

“The demonstrators are towards this regulation, however they are not against the presence of Russians as human beings. It’s the Russian system that is utterly unacceptable. I do not take it personally in any respect.”

This web page has been translated from the unique in French.