Vakhtang Gomelauri: Russian citizens have been always visiting Georgia...
As Gomelauri told journalists, about 4-5 days ago, 5,000-6,000 people
arrived from Russia, the day before yesterday there were 11,200-11,400
people and yesterday the number amounted to 10,400-10,500 people.As he
explained, this number may increase tomorrow and the day after."As for
the entry of 250,000 people, we are probably talking about Russian
citizens, this is wrong and false. Not so many people entered and I
don't know where you get these numbers from. About 4-5 days ago, there
were 5,000-6,000 visitors. Now it has increased to about 10 thousand,
it has increased by 40-45%, and there are not 250 thousand people, nor
2 million, who is telling you this and where do they get it? For
example, the day before yesterday there were 11,200 people, last night
less than 10,000. It's not 100,000 and 200,000 people. About 60% exit
the country. In the summer, there were tourists, not people who came
for any other purpose. In our opinion, they avoid military service.I
always have one question, the opposition is divided into two, it
seems, however, in the world, in Europe, they think differently and
move to other approaches. Some people say that we should lock them up
and not let them in, others say that we should let them in so that
these people don't go to war. Maybe they will decide which one they
want, should we let these people in or not?" Gomelauri said.Regarding
the question of whether the level of crime is expected to increase
after the influx of Russian citizens to Georgia, Gomelauri answered
that it is likely."Crime may increase or decrease. As more people come
in, of course it can. Of course, the probability is that it will
increase, it may not also increase at all," said Gomelauri.According
to him, the largest number of citizens are at the "Larsi" customs
point. As Vakhtang Gomelauri noted, very few people come from Armenia
and Azerbaijan."It's not 10%, it's less," he explained.When asked how
morally justified it is for Russian citizens to enter Georgia and
whether the issue of closing the border is discussed, Gomelauri
answered that Russians have always entered Georgia and the previous
government had no problem with that either."These people, citizens of
Russia, ethnically Russians have been visiting Georgia for years,
should this turn into a problem today? It was on a worse scale. Mr.
Saakashvili used to meet and hand out wines, one bottle each to the
Russians in the car, saying 'welcome, you have nothing to do with it,
this is Putin's fault' - don't you remember that? Those of you who
deal with this and those of you who ask the questions know this.
Russian citizens always used to come in, should we close it today?"
Gomelauri addressed the journalist.
