Georgia won’t deport former Navalny volunteer Denis Kulanin to Russia, allows him to leave for a third country

The Tbilisi City Court has ruled that Russian citizen Denis Kulanin can leave Georgia for a third country rather than be deported to Russia, Paper Kartuli reported. Kulanin has seven days to leave the country voluntarily.

Kulanin was sentenced to two years in a Georgian prison in 2025 and was pardoned on August 27, 2026. Supporters bought him a ticket to Yerevan, but he was unable to leave Georgia. At the time, authorities had made no formal decision on deporting him.

Human rights activists feared Kulanin would be deported to Russia, where he could face prosecution: he had volunteered with Alexey Navalny’s campaign headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and opposed Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the human rights project APUS. Kulanin, who was awaiting a deportation decision at a migration detention facility, said authorities were “trying to throw him out into Russia.”

A protest outside Georgia’s Migration Department in Tbilisi on September 1 saw participants demand that Kulanin be allowed to leave voluntarily for a third country.

Georgia’s Migration Department ultimately asked the court to deport Kulanin “to his country of origin” — meaning Russia — but to grant him seven days to leave voluntarily, including for a third country. APUS suggested the agency likely worded its petition that way partly in response to public pressure.