Have Russians who fled the war found new homes?

This is the beautiful old town of Tbilisi, Georgia, nestled in Eastern Europe's hills and the capital of a country that is now home to many of the Russian citizens who fled Russia because of the Ukraine war. But while Georgia is overwhelmingly pro-Ukraine and a year has passed since the invasion began, the Russians still here aren't necessarily welcome by some residents, even if they may share the same anti-war values. Gleb Kuznetsov is originally from St. Petersburg and has now opened a handicrafts shop in Tbilisi. Once, I don't know if you need to hear this, we had the whole of our door plastered with stickers with banners saying, Russians, go fuck yourselves in the shape of the Ukrainian trident. We also had an attack on Google Maps with negative reviews. There were about 10 of them.

We have tried to find a Georgian speaking assistant here for the shop or a bar attendant for that bar, but unfortunately we haven't been able to find anybody. We advertised the vacancies in Georgian youth groups on Facebook and didn't get a single reply. As Kuznetsov says, the language barrier may be contributing. Many use English as a common language and classes like this teach Russians Georgian, but there's much more to it than that. Georgia has a long and hostile history with Russia. In the 90s, separatists in two areas of Georgia were backed by Russia and they expelled the ethnic Georgians living in those regions. Then there was the brief war between the two countries in 2008.

Georgia was also a former Soviet country. Opposition political parties in Georgia have called for limits on the number of Russian arrivals. On the streets of Tbilisi, students we spoke to gave mixed views. For example, this man said he can't share a drink with Russians and thinks it's awful about their opening businesses here. The Russians aren't friends, he says, they're enemies. This woman says she wouldn't go into a Russian business. Although this person says he would and that he recognizes not all Russians are bad.

Nikolai Kiriv was in Russia when the invasion began. He says he sat and cried as he watched the news with his three-year-old son. That evening he decided and it was very obvious that we have to leave the country as soon as possible. Now he owns a book shop aimed at Russian exiles. He even has shelves for dissident authors. Some of whose books are banned in Russia. He's hoping to transition from Russian language books to English and become what he called an international space.

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