The Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Vakhtang Gomelauri, said that after the announcement of military mobilization in Russia, the number of arrivals from Upper Lars has increased. He also gave specific numbers.
"After the announcement of mobilization, in the last five days, there were 5.5 thousand. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow that it may increase even more. Very few people are coming in by air and from Armenia. The day before yesterday, there were 11,200 people, and yesterday - 10,400, if I'm not mistaken. About 60 percent of those who come in go out," said the minister.
According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri, on September 26, Georgia sent additional police forces to the Lars border checkpoint in connection with the excessive influx of Russian citizens. "Additional police forces, not thousands of people, have been transferred to help those who need something, detain them, deport them," the minister told journalists today. When asked what the upper limit is and how many Russian citizens Georgia can accept, taking into account security and other aspects, he said there is no such limit. However, the flow at the Russian border is "already at its peak," – argued Gomelauri.
According to "Lelo" MPs, their demand is not to close the Russian-Georgian border but to regulate the border and establish a strict visa regime, with justified exceptions. According to a member of parliament, Davit Usupashvili, the fact that Georgia has an unlimited regime for Russian citizens to enter Georgia is unacceptable and inadmissible.
"The visa regime should be tightened both in terms and conditions. We do not ask to close the border! We have prepared changes with a clear framework that will solve the problem. It is necessary to make decisions in the direction of tightening and not in the direction of prohibition", said Davit Usupashvili.
Georgia’s Revenue Service reports that the customs control of the trucks passing from Georgia to the Russian Federation side is delayed. In the same statement, the agency emphasizes that the cargo flow at the customs checkpoint has increased. The Service also added that to ensure the continuity of increased international cargo turnover, it is in intensive communication with the relevant customs administrations of the neighboring countries - Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia - to quickly find alternative customs checkpoints to get to the destination countries.
This follows the information released by the Vice Prime Minister of North Ossetia, Irbek Tomaev, saying that 37 thousand vehicles and more than 115 thousand people crossed the Georgia-Russia border through the Zemo Lars customs checkpoint during the past week.
On September 27, photos were circulated in Telegram showing that an armored personnel carrier with masked people dressed in military uniforms was moving to the Russian side of the Zemo Lars border crossing point.
Russia's "FSB" responded to this information - the agency says it will be used if someone tries to break the border. FSB denies the information that they plan to set up a checkpoint near Lars – "The armored personnel carrier is moving, but not to set up a checkpoint. This is, roughly speaking, a backup in case the reservists want to breach the checkpoint and leave the country without going through the border formalities. Only for this purpose".
