Data of Russian companies registered in Georgia “not alarming” - ruling party MP
Ruling Georgian Dream party MP Mikheil Sarjveladze said on Tuesday there was “no serious increase” in the number of Russian businesses registered in Georgia. Photo: Parliament of Georgia press office
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Ruling Georgian Dream party MP Mikheil Sarjveladze said on Tuesday there was “nothing alarming” in the number of Russian businesses registered in Georgia over the past five months, in comments of the latest data of the National Statistics Office that showed 7,459 Russian businesses registered in the country between March 1 and August 1.
The number of the businesses registered on the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine also showed only four of the entities indicating their activities in their registration.
In his remarks, Sarjveladze said it was “best international practice” that the domestic legislation did not require entrepreneurs to indicate a specific activity in the process of registering a company. “It is natural that the rule is for everyone, no matter of their ethnicity”, he added.
In further comments, the MP said “radical political forces” of the domestic scene were “eager to find something alarming in the figures and the situation”.
There is nothing alarming in the figures, as some forces are trying to show”, Sarjveladze said.
In a bid to “prevent security threats”, several opposition parties have called on the authorities to impose visa requirements for Russian citizens and ban them from registering businesses in Georgia in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian citizens currently in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi will receive services of a select group of sports centres, museum venues, theatre halls, libraries and art schools free of charge, Tbilisi City Hall announced earlier today.
Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday said the country would “not start a war against Russia” and “does not get involved in the Russia-Ukraine war”, stressing the “influx” of visitors to Georgia in the wake of the conflict's outbreak was welcomed.
Calls by the Lelo for Georgia opposition party to impose visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens serve the goal of dragging Georgia into Russia’s war in Ukraine, ruling Georgian Dream party MP Anri Okhanashvili said on Thursday in remarks that also reminded the opposition that the visa requirement with Russia had been lifted by the former President Mikheil Saakashvili while in office.
Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze on Wednesday said the recent initiative of the Lelo for Georgia opposition party, which called on the Government to impose visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens to prevent security threats on the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine, would have a negative impact on domestic tourism.
Gogita Todradze, the Head of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, said on Wednesday the activities of the majority of recently registered Russian businesses in Georgia were unknown as they had not started operations, in comments of the latest data of the agency that showed 7,459 Russian businesses registered in the country between March 1 and August 1, with only four of the entities indicating their activities in their registration.
Georgian finance minister Lasha Khutsishvili on Thursday said the “total effect” of migration to the country caused by the Russia-Ukraine war was “negative”.