“Reverse Migration” and Georgia's Security Dilemma Amidst Russian Aggressive War in Ukraine

Abstract

After the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation’s troops into Ukraine, the analysis of the statistical data of the border crossing of Georgia shows that the number of Russian and Belarusian citizens staying in Georgia has increased significantly. Moreover, most of them did not leave the country after staying for at least 1-3 months. Therefore, it is unlikely that the visits of the mentioned persons are related to the tourist goals. Simultaneously, the discussion about "soft threats" is becoming active. It is likely that, both in the short and long term, this process will have an impact on certain issues related to security. Accordingly, it is necessary to analyze whether this situation represents a real threat to state security and how the state should respond to a potential challenge.

Due to the relevance of the topic, in the given article authors discuss the main tasks of Georgia's foreign policy and evaluate the perspective of whether Georgia can pursue its state interests, which are closely related to national and global security, or not. The article depicts activities and functions of international organizations as well. A significant amount of attention is paid to the policies of the target countries of future migration flows to Georgia (in particular, the European Union and Russia).