Georgian interior minister views media reports on 'influx of Russians' as exaggerated

TBILISI. March 9 (Interfax) - The Georgian border is being controlled by respective services at a very high level, and the claims of certain individuals about massive crossings of the border by citizens of Russia and Belarus in the recent days are untrue, Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri said.

"Slightly more than 20,000 citizens of Russia have crossed into Georgia over the past 13 days. Meanwhile, 40,000 Russian citizens arrived in Georgia over the same 13-day period in 2019," Gomelauri told reporters on Wednesday.

Russian citizens are arriving in Georgia from Turkey and Armenia, he said.

"There are lots of Russian citizens from the North Caucasian republics - Dagestanis, Chechens, mostly women and children stranded in Turkey in recent days after flights were paused. They arrive in Georgia by bus in an organized manner and go to their home country through the Lars checkpoint," Gomelauri said.

He denied the information that most Russian citizens came to Georgia to stay.

"About 3,000 Russian citizens were staying in Georgia over the past three days. We have denied entry to over 100 citizens for various reasons," he said.

As to why a journalist of TV Rain (designated as a foreign-agent media outlet by the Russian Justice Ministry) had been denied admission to Georgia, the minister said he might have been on that list. "This is a standard procedure: a border guard decides who can enter the country and who cannot," Gomelauri said.