MIA Detains Russian Activist Couple for ‘Illegal Border Crossing’
Georgian authorities have arrested Russian citizens Vladimir Dubovsky and Alina Savelyeva on charges of illegally entering the country. While some reports referred to the couple as anti-Putin, pro-Ukraine activists, Dubovsky has also faced accusations of working for Russian special services.
The Ministry announced an arrest late on Thursday after Unity of Ukrainians of Historical Lands (Єднання Українців Історичних Земель), a group co-founded by Dubovsky, raised alarms that the “unknown individuals kidnapped and took away by car” the couple, with their whereabouts unknown. “Volodymyr and Alina are also leaders of the movement Green Klyn – My Homeland,” the group wrote on the Telegram channel.
According to the ministry, the couple bypassed official border control when crossing into Georgia. Both have been charged under Article 344-2 of the Criminal Code, involving illegal crossing of the state border as a group and punishable by expulsion and a two-to-ten-year entry ban, or by four to five years in prison.
The ministry, which said that combating “criminal migration” was its priority, noted that the couple had repeatedly applied for asylum in Georgia, but their requests were denied – a decision later upheld by the courts. “Ultimately, on November 12 of this year, the court issued a detention order against both of them,” the ministry reported.
A 2022 report by Meduza, an independent Russian media outlet in exile, identified Dubovsky, who reportedly arrived in Georgia in 2021, as an anti-war activist and former Navalny office coordinator who has assisted Russians fleeing to Georgia after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Russian human rights platforms, Dubovsky was declared wanted in Russia, and in December 2024, “he was included in the Rosfinmonitoring [Russian public agency] list with a mark that is placed next to the names of those prosecuted under terrorism articles.”
However, Dubovsky has faced accusations from Russian opposition and activist circles of fraud and working for Russian security services. Egor Kuroptev, a Russian-Georgian journalist and former director of the Free Russia Foundation, warned in a Facebook post against portraying Dubovsky’s case as the abduction of anti-Kremlin activists.
“Don’t confuse the real beatings, torture, and threats to the safety of protesters in Tbilisi, the real threats to Russian activists in Georgia, with the case of a man who has been repeatedly accused by the Russian opposition over the years of working for the Russian special services and lying,” he said.
Kuroptev added that Dubovsky and Savelyeva illegally crossed the Armenian-Georgian border in 2023, applying for asylum only afterward, calling the move “just another provocation.”
“Is it any wonder that neither I nor anyone else in the opposition defended him, and everyone is silent? Well, there you go,” he wrote.
A March 2023 report by the pro-opposition broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi described Dubovsky as a “Russian criminal in Georgia” who was allegedly residing in the country illegally, criticizing Georgian authorities over a lack of response. The report included comments from Russian journalists and members of the Russian opposition community in Georgia, who accused him of fraud, embezzlement, and acting as an “agent” for Russian security services.
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