"I will say directly, this is a deliberate, xenophobic campaign that is absolutely shameful. It does not fit into any norms, any standards. If someone wants to be European, they will not be able to prove it with xenophobia", said the chairman of "Georgian Dream" about the initiative of the "Lelo" party.
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"Lelo" demands that the government take restrictive measures for citizens of other countries involved in military aggression against Russia and Ukraine.
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The temporary visa regime should be put into effect;
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To limit and control as much as possible the issues of land and other immovable property acquisition; also granting of the right of residence in Georgia;
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To limit and control the business registration process as much as possible;
According to Kobakhidze, there is no place for xenophobia in Georgia.
"As for tourism, tourism is one of the main directions of our country, and a lot of fake news is spread in this regard. In particular, for example, one of the TV stations announced that the number of Russian tourists in Georgia today is 10% of the entire population of Georgia, which is a complete lie. In reality, it may not even be 1%.
In total, 242,000 people entered Georgia, including those who had already left. This is a xenophobic campaign based entirely on lies.
The previous government introduced a visa-free regime for Russian citizens after the August war, and today, the same people are urging us to impose restrictions, sanctions, etc. It is apparent xenophobia, and of course, we will have a strict response to this xenophobia", - said Irakli Kobakhidze.
"Transparency International - Georgia" published a study on August 3, according to which 247,000 visitors from Russia entered Georgia in January-June 2022. Compared to January-June 2019, the number of visitors from Russia is three times less. However, according to the same research, 6419 Russian companies were registered in Georgia in January-June, seven times more than the annual rate of 2021.
