TBILISI – If it weren’t for the ubiquitous “No War” stickers and Ukrainian flags, a visitor to Koshini, a new bar in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, could be forgiven for thinking they had been transplanted to a hipster district of Moscow. Virtually all those present on a recent summer’s night, from the bartenders to the patrons, were Russian-speakers. Most of them had only recently arrived in the Caucasian country.
The bar is a microcosm of the new Tbilisi. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled their country, fearing growing repression, rumours of imminent conscription or simply the effect of Western sanctions on living standards. Up to 100,000 Russian citizens are estimated to have headed to Georgia in the past few months, settling mostly in the capital.
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