Georgia blocks pardoned Russian activist Denis Kulanin from flying to Armenia, as rights advocates fear he’ll be deported to Russia

Georgia’s Interior Ministry immigration department has blocked Russian national Denis Kulanin from leaving the country, according to the human rights group APUS. Kulanin, released a few days ago after being pardoned, had planned to fly to Yerevan.

Kulanin received a two-year prison sentence in Georgia in 2025 and was pardoned on August 27. The Tbilisi City Court authorized him to leave for a third country rather than Russia, and supporters bought him a ticket to Yerevan. He has a valid passport. But he was not allowed to fly out.

According to lawyer Darya Samodurova, Kulanin’s case manager said on August 31 that Kulanin would not be able to fly where he wanted because a decision on his expulsion from Georgia had not yet been made.

Kulanin is being held in an immigration detention center. The migration department petitioned the Tbilisi City Court on September 1 to expel him to Russia, APUS said.

Samodurova said Georgian law includes exceptions under which a foreigner subject to an expulsion order can be denied a period for voluntary departure — in which case he is expelled to his home country. “There is a high risk that Denis is going to be sent specifically to Russia,” she wrote.

In a letter sent from detention, Kulanin wrote that they are “trying to throw [him] out to Russia.”

Denis Kulanin was detained on March 28, 2025, on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi during protests against the ruling Georgian Dream party. He was charged with damaging an Interior Ministry vehicle and sentenced to two years in prison. Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili pardoned Kulanin on August 27 along with other prisoners also released to mark the Orthodox feast of the Dormition.

APUS said Kulanin is a former volunteer at Alexey Navalny’s campaign office in Rostov-on-Don who spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine, which could put him in danger in his home country.