December 10, 2024

Leave Georgia or Be Sent to Russia


Leave Georgia or Be Sent to Russia
Yevgeny Muravitsky, standing in front of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Belsat, Telegram.

In Georgia, over 400 persons have been arrested in protests in Tbilisi after the ruling party, Georgian Dream, suspended negotiations on accession to the European Union. Among the arrested were 10 foreigners, including a Belarusian man who fled to Lithuania to avoid deportation to Russia.

On November 30, 25-year-old Yevgeny Muravitsky was detained in an anti-government protest in the Georgian capital. Authorities filed a case against the Belarusian national for "insulting a special forces soldier." Muravitsky spent two days in a prison in the city of Sighnaghi. 

After Muravitsky was released, immigration authorities summoned him. On December 2, four officers went looking for him at his residence. The next day, Muravitsky applied for asylum. Belarussian human rights activist Roman Kysliak said, "The risk existed that he would be captured and taken to the border with Russia and sent there."

Despite being allowed to request international protection, the Belarussian man decided to leave Georgia for his own safety. Human rights activists from Belarus managed to get Muravitsky out of Georgia by obtaining a single-entry visa from the Lithuanian Embassy in one day.

In Georgia, more than 350 people are being held on administrative charges and 26 on criminal charges. According to human rights activists, more than 300 detainees were subjected to torture and inhumane treatment. Eighty protesters required hospitalization after being detained.

You Might Also Like

Vetting Russians in Georgia
  • June 03, 2022

Vetting Russians in Georgia

Georgians welcome Russians fleeing their country, but only if they don't support the war in Ukraine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955