President calls gov’t responses to Russia’s lifting of travel, visa ban “preudo-patriotic”, “false”

Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili on Thursday said the Georgian government members’ justification of Russia’s lifting of visa regime and travel ban with Georgia was “pseudo patriotic and false”. 

 

In her personal social media account the president claimed if the country’s authorities were “really interested” in the fate of its citizens, they would have resolves citizenship complications and elaborated a joint strategy that would have eased the travel of the country’s nationals from around the world, including from Europe and neighboring states. 

 

She also stressed that thousands of Russian citizens had crossed into Georgia since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine “without any difficulties”. 

 

“As for the apparent difficulties of arriving in Georgia, I will remind you that people arrive from Russia without any problems via Minsk, Yerevan, Baku and Turkey, or even by crossing the land border of Lars. More than 700,000 Russian citizens entered [including those of Georgian origin] and 600,000 left our country, that proves moving is easy”, said the president. 

 

She highlighted the importance of a “complex approach” to the country’s diaspora, not “dancing on the music ordered by the Kremlin at that time it chose”.