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In response to
"I gotta say it. You know who else was famous for not letting his commanders retreat? Hitler -- nm"
by
crash davis
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The line at Georgia’s border with Russia is 2,000 cars long.
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SHEKVETILI, Georgia — Hundreds of vehicles are clogging highways to border crossings between Russia and neighboring countries after President Vladimir V. Putin’s announcement of a call-up of troops, with the line into Georgia growing to over eight miles long in the past several days.
Since Mr. Putin’s announcement on Wednesday, some Russian men who had once thought they were safe from the front lines in Ukraine have fled the country. And they have done so in a rush, lining up at the borders and paying rising prices to catch flights to countries that allow them to enter without visas.
On Saturday afternoon, the line at the Russian border with Georgia was 2,000 cars — up from 50 before Mr. Putin announced the call-up — according to Russian data. The crossing point usually processes up to 2,000 cars a day, meaning that people may have to wait for at least 24 hours to cross the border.
The queue was more than eight miles long, according to Yandex, a Russian internet company that runs a popular map and traffic service. Smaller lines were also recorded by the Russian Federal Customs Agency at other crossing points, including with Latvia and Mongolia.
Many European countries have tightened entry restrictions for Russians. Georgia, which does not require Russians to have a visa to enter the country, appeared to be one of the few remaining destinations for those fleeing possible conscription.
In some Russian regions, military authorities banned reservists from leaving their districts and towns, but it was not clear how those bans would be enforced. No ban on travel has been imposed in Moscow and some other urbanized regions.
Russian media described anxious scenes as people in line at the border with Georgia worried about whether they would be let out of the country, though there were few reports of people being turned away.
This month, the three Baltic States agreed to ban Russians from crossing into their countries by land, sealing a popular route out of the country. Finland, where the number of people crossing the border on Friday doubled from a week earlier to nearly 8,000, said it would deny entry to Russian tourists some time in the coming week.
Russians can stay in Georgia — which fought its own five-day war with Russia in 2008 and considers 20 percent of its territory occupied by the northern neighbor — for up to one year without a visa.
In the months since President Vladimir V. Putin invaded Ukraine, thousands of Russians have settled in Georgia. In August, Transparency International Georgia said that Russians ran 13,500 companies in the country, half of them opened since the invasion, and had transferred more than $650 million into Georgia from April to June.
Georgian opposition parties have called on the government to restrict the number of Russians entering the country, citing security concerns. The ruling party has responded that the opposition is proposing “xenophobic policies” to pursue their political goals.
Johanna Lemola contributed reporting.
— Ivan Nechepurenko
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