Tbilisi International Airport has become another gateway to Mordor - Irakli Pavlenishvili

Irakli Pavlenishvili, Chairman of the Governing Council of the United National Movement, states that Tbilisi International Airport has become one of the main gateways for the mass and, in his opinion, uncontrolled entry of Russian citizens into Georgia.

As Pavlenishvili stated at a briefing held at Tbilisi International Airport, the United National Movement is not opposed to tourism by Russian citizens, however, according to him, the threat of replacing Georgian citizens and Georgian businesses in Georgia is unacceptable.

“Tbilisi International Airport has become another gateway to Mordor in Georgia. Representatives of the occupying country are entering here from Putin’s Russia, or Mordor, in an uncontrolled, mass manner. As the Russian propaganda of the “Dream” tells us, a large part of these people are not tourists.

We are not fighting tourism and tourists from Russia, but we do not want Georgian citizens and Georgian businesses to be replaced in Georgia.

Since 2022 alone, about 40 thousand Russian companies have been registered in Georgia. These companies are creating even more problems for Georgian small and medium-sized businesses, which are already in an unfavorable situation,” Pavlenishvili said.

He also said that recently the intensity of air traffic with Russia has reached unprecedented levels.

“It is important that there have never been such intensive flights in the history of our country as there are today. Not even during the Soviet Union. For example, several flights are operated in the Moscow direction throughout the day, Georgian Airways alone operates about four flights.

There are also completely new directions that did not exist before, and these are industrial centers of Russia. There is a reasonable suspicion that in some cases we may be dealing with circumvention of sanctions,” he noted.

According to Pavlenishvili, the main threat to Georgia is “Georgia without Georgians” and the accelerated pace of Russification in the country.

“Overall, the main threat is Georgia without Georgians and the accelerated pace of Russification. Only after the dismantling of Ivanishvili’s system will Georgian citizens and Georgian businesses in this country be protected from the Russian threat,” Irakli Pavlenishvili said.