EditRussians flood Georgia amid mobilisation fears – and Tbilisi’s welcome is wearing thin
Opposition figures describe Tbilisi airport as “another gate of Mordor” and warn that an expanding Russian diaspora could become a fifth column
Huge one-way queues have formed at the Upper Lars crossing on the Russia-Georgia border. In the last full week of August alone more than 113,000 people and 33,000 vehicles left Russia through that single checkpoint – a record. The surge is widely read as a barometer of fear that Moscow will announce a new wave of mobilisation after the mid-September State Duma elections.
For Russian draft-dodgers, Georgia is the easiest exit. It has a land border, visa-free entry and a government that has so far treated the inflow as economically useful. The number of Russian citizens living in Georgia has already jumped from about 38,000 in the 2024 census to 72,000 in 2026 = roughly 2 percent of the population. Another large wave could double that figure.
The economic and social effects are already visible. Rents in Tbilisi and Batumi have doubled in a few years. About 40,000 Russian-registered companies have appeared since 2022. A CRRC-Georgia poll found that 70 percent of Georgians do not trust the newcomers and 52 percent oppose giving them the right to work. A July hotel brawl in Kakheti between Russian tourists and Georgian wedding guests triggered a protest in Tbilisi demanding tighter entry rules.
Opposition figures describe Tbilisi airport as “another gate of Mordor.” They warn that an expanding Russian diaspora could become a fifth column, that people linked to Russian state media or who have visited Georgia’s occupied territories are slipping in, and that intelligence activity is harder to monitor amid the volume of arrivals. Georgian Dream officials dismiss the concern as seasonal tourism and accuse critics of stirring ethnic hatred.
The pattern repeats 2022, when Putin’s first “partial mobilisation” sent a similar rush across the same mountain pass. This time the numbers are larger, the resident community is already established, and the political temperature in Georgia is higher.
Many of the Russians now arriving in Georgia express surprise at the cool or hostile reception they meet, apparently forgetting that Moscow still occupies roughly 20 percent of the country’s internationally recognised territory – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – after the 2008 war.
The article in Ukrainian by EUalive’s partner European Pravda can be found here.
Caption: Queues have formed at the Upper Lars crossing on the Russia-Georgia border. [@PeterClifford1 on X]
Updated: September 9, 2026 - 15:51
