Opposition: Ivanishvili regime has turned Larsi checkpoint into ‘gateway’ for Russian citizens

Irakli Pavlenishvili, head of the United National Movement's collegial governing body, has accused the Georgian government of allowing large numbers of Russian citizens to enter the country through the Larsi border crossing, describing the checkpoint as a "gateway to Mordor."

Pavlenishvili claimed that Russians were entering Georgia without adequate controls and receiving Georgian citizenship through what he described as simplified procedures introduced by the Georgian Dream government.

"This is how the replacement of Georgians is being carried out," Pavlenishvili said, arguing that hundreds of thousands of Georgians were leaving the country because of poverty and lack of prospects while hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens were entering.

He also claimed that Russian nationals were gaining a dominant position in Georgia's real estate market and acquiring significant property and businesses, which he said posed a threat to Georgian statehood.

Pavlenishvili called for the "dismantling" of the current political system, saying this was necessary to prevent what he described as a plan to create a "Georgia without Georgians."