According to the Georgian authorities, they would be about 37,000 to have fled their country since the war triggered by Russia in Ukraine.
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On this day end of March, Tbilisi bathes for the first time in a spring light. Aleksei (all names have been modified at the request of the interested parties) crosses a pressed court of the House of Justice, a center for administrative procedures, without linking to the translators offering their services, and goes to at the counter reserved for vaccinal pass. Fouled, with big green eyes, Aleksei, 33, left his hometown in Siberia a week after the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine on February 24. “For years, I have been opposed to the Russian regime that does not move. The war has been the drop of water that broke the vase. I could not live in this country anymore.”
As Russian, this computer scientist specializing in video games can stay in Georgia for a year without the need for residence permits. He does not plan to return to his country “as long as this power is in place” and says want “to be part of the free world”. Far from being an isolated case, Aleskei is part of this wave of Russians, 37,000 according to the estimates of the local authorities, which, since February 24, arrived in Georgia.
Fear and guilt
By the age of 27, Aleksei started participating in political events. He also financially helped the organization of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption fund (FBK), and went to his meetings. In 2018, he was arrested at a gathering against a new law increasing the age of retirement. Sentenced to 150 euros fine, he has, since then, more participated in any event. “I was afraid,” he explains, sitting on a bench in the House of Justice.
But when Navalny was poisoned in 2020, Aleksei went to the Omsk Hospital, Siberia, where the opponent had been admitted at first. A few days later, he was summoned to the police station where, he said, he was ordered to no longer publish political content on social networks. What he did. Until, on 24 February, date of the Russian attack on Ukraine, a feeling of guilt invades it. “In Russia, people close to me, some of my friends and even my father, believe the Russian media. Propaganda is very strong.”
In Tbilisi, Aleksei found, with the help of a Russian friend, an apartment in the center of the city. Before leaving Siberia, he managed to remove all his savings from the bank, enough to live six months. “For the future, I do not worry. I have a job that allows me to live and work where I want,” he slips.
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