TBILISI, September 6 – Russian activist Denis Kulanin left Georgia Friday, after a Tbilisi court ordered his expulsion.
Kulanin’s departure from Tbilisi International Airport was confirmed by footage released by his lawyer Tsiala Ratiani. Earlier the same day, Tbilisi City Court gave him seven days to leave Georgia voluntarily.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs said the court had approved the Migration Department’s request to expel Kulanin under Georgian immigration law. He was allowed to leave for a destination of his choice. If he had failed to leave within seven days, the order would have been enforced forcibly. The court also banned him from entering Georgia for five years.
Rights group Rights Georgia said Kulanin would not be deported to Russia and that it would continue representing him until he reached a safe third country.
The case had drawn criticism from rights groups because Kulanin had publicly opposed Russia’s war against Ukraine and supported Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Amnesty International warned on September 2 that returning him to Russia could expose him to arbitrary prosecution, imprisonment, torture or other ill-treatment. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association made a similar appeal, arguing that he should be allowed to travel to a safe third country instead.
Kulanin had lived in Georgia and was arrested on March 28, 2025. He was convicted of damaging a police vehicle during a protest and sentenced to two years in prison.
President Mikheil Kavelashvili later pardoned Kulanin along with eight other people convicted in connection with protest-related cases. After the pardon, however, immigration authorities kept Kulanin in custody while expulsion proceedings continued. A court on August 30 ordered that he remain in the Migration Department’s temporary accommodation center for up to three months or until the expulsion process was completed. His lawyers said they had already bought him a ticket to a third country.
