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Paper short abstract

This paper focuses on the migration of Russian and Belarusian citizens to Georgia following the the Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It explores how the trajectories of the migrants both operationalize and reproduce the imagined geographies originating back in the Russian colonial history.

Paper long abstract

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 did not only cause a massive displacement of Ukrainians fleeing from the atrocities of war, but also resulted in a mass exodus from Russia itself. Georgia, a country of 3.7 million, with a recent history of military conflicts with Russia and notably anti-Russian public sentiments, became one of the main destinations of the Russian “relocants” as well as Belarusians fleeing from the regime. In this paper, we explore the ways in which the trajectories of these migrants both follow and reproduce certain established routes and imagined geographies of familiarity originating back in the Russian colonial history.