Two Russian activists detained in Georgia on illegal border crossing charges

Two Russian activists - Vladimir Dubovsky and his partner, Alina Savelieva - who were previously reported missing by friends who claimed they had been “abducted,” are in fact being held in criminal detention by Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.

They face between four and five years in prison on charges of illegally crossing the state border.

In a statement released on the evening of 27 November, the ministry said the pair were detained on the basis of a court warrant and had been accused of “illegally and jointly crossing the state border of Georgia.”

Dubovsky previously served as the coordinator of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters in Vladivostok and was a member of Russia’s Libertarian Party. He has been living in Georgia since 2022.

In 2024, Russian authorities added him to the national register of “terrorists and extremists.”

Russian media had earlier reported allegations linking him to fraud and cooperation with Russian security services - accusations he denied.

According to the Interior Ministry, investigators established that the pair entered Georgia unlawfully by bypassing border control and remained in the country illegally for the past three years.

The ministry added that both Dubovsky and Savelieva repeatedly applied for asylum through the Migration Department, but their applications were denied on the grounds that they did not meet the criteria for asylum seekers. The department’s decisions were later challenged in two court instances, both of which upheld the denials.

On 12 November of this year, a court issued arrest warrants for both individuals, allowing law enforcement to detain them as criminal suspects.

They are currently being held in a pre-trial detention facility.

The offence carries penalties ranging from deportation with a ban on re-entry for two to ten years, or imprisonment for four to five years.