Anastasia Zinovkina's mother denied entry to Georgia

Georgian border guards did not allow Russian citizen Svetlana Zinovkina, who was planning to meet with her daughter, who was arrested in Tbilisi, into the country.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel wrote, Russian citizens Artem Gribul and Anastasia Zinovkina, who participated in protests in Tbilisi, were arrested on charges of drug trafficking. In court, they stated that evidence was planted on them, and that security forces resorted to threats. At a hearing in April, during the interrogation of a police officer, Gribul held a piece of paper with the inscription: "He planted drugs in my pockets." At a hearing in late June, the owner of the apartment where the Russians lived, informed the court that security forces were not constantly in sight during the search. On July 21, Gribul and Russian Anton Chechin, arrested in a similar case, announced a dry hunger strike in prison. One of the demands of Gribul's hunger strike is to improve the conditions of detention of Zinovkina, who suffers from problems with her spine and vision, and to provide her with normal nutrition.

On July 30, human rights activist Nikolai Kavkazsky (listed by the Russian Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) reported that Anastasia Zinovkina's mother was not allowed into Georgia. According to him, Svetlana Zinovkina had planned a long meeting with her daughter, who has been recognized as a political prisoner by Georgian human rights activists.

“I am outraged by the actions of the Georgian authorities, who do not allow many opposition Russians into the country, and now they are stopping allowing the relatives of such people,” Kavkazsky wrote on his Facebook page*.

Svetlana Zinovkina lives in Russia, she arrived in Tbilisi on July 30. Border guards at the airport initially told Svetlana that she had participated in protests in Georgia and should pay a fine of 5,000 lari (1,850 US dollars) for blocking the road, the Zinovkina and Gribul support group reported on their Telegram channel.

The elder Zinovkina came to Georgia only once in March for five days to visit her daughter. The border guards did not provide any evidence of her participation in the protests, did not say what day the fine was issued for, and did not provide a fine receipt - “they simply gave the bank account numbers and demanded that 5,000 lari be transferred,” stating that if Svetlana was not paid, she would not be allowed into the country, the Tbilisi_life Telegram channel reported.

A little later, the border guards changed their minds and told Svetlana that paying the fine “would not help.” She was denied entry to Georgia, with “other reasons” indicated in the refusal document. “We tried to find any fine on the websites of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but there is NOT a single fine in her name or data that the border guards demanded she pay this morning,” the channel notes.

After being denied entry, Svetlana Zinovkina was sent to a “special room” at the airport to wait until a suitable flight was found to return her to Russia. At the same time, her mobile phone was taken away without any reason.

* the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.