A few small points as someone who has permanent residency in Georgia.

No one welcomed the first waves of Russians before or after February 2022. The people were unhappy from the very beginning - the main argument was that even if they were anti war or anti Putin (and they are not the same thing) Putin could use them as an excuse to “rescue” in future years. Also, a lot of the opposition to Putin were not allowed in Georgia.


The khachapuri, you describe is Adjaran khachapuri. Most khachapuri looks two thin pizzas with cheese inside.

The ban on Georgian commerce was brief, it reopened shortly after and remained fully open until around the pandemic- when a Russian politician attended the Georgian parliament and sat in the speaker’s chair- causing a riot. This had direct flights banned which has only just now been reversed.

The situation with Georgian cheese is complicated- officially it is allowed in but apparently some Russian oligarch has bribed the border guards and they won’t let it in, even though there are no official restrictions. Armenian cheese that goes over the same border faces no restrictions. I even considered getting my Armenian friends to label the cheese theirs and then make it magically Georgian over the border. Somebody probably already thought of it.

The older generation are ambivalent towards Russians in general, except if you bring up Abkhazia or Samachablo.

The young people, oh boy, are super anti-Russian. It is concerning as the Armenian community, which my wife belongs to, in Tbilisi usually have Russian as a first language and Russian is the language of my household.

To say Georgians support Ukraine is a gross understatement. I would probably take a bet that there are more Ukrainian flags in Georgia than in Ukraine! You can’t walk 30 metres without seeing one.

The government of Georgia is an embarrassment to most Georgians. There is no stretch of the imagination that would be enough to call the government neutral. It is laughable to say it is pro EU and desires admittance- every policy for he last decade has been going in the opposite direction but it is so blatant now. It was doing everything right and now doing everything wrong. Only the President, with little more than ceremonial power, is pro-Ukraine and pro- EU.

It only took two months for the “I will never rent to a Russian” crowd to start turfing out long term local and foreign tenants for Russians willing to pay 3 times the price. A lot of foreigners who lived in Georgia during Covid times found themselves locked out of the market and left Georgia for other places. All replaced with Russians.