Life in Georgia: Interview with Nikolai Levshits

Nikolai Levshik is a political emigrant who has been living in Georgia for 2.5 years. Now he is leading the most popular telegram channel about Georgia in Russian and is engaged in the help of Russian-speaking expans. Read about how he lives in Georgia, about the pros and cons of this country in our interview.

- When did you decide to go to Georgia and what was it connected with?

- I left in January 2019. Prior to this, I worked as the director of Rus Sitting, made the school of the municipal deputy in Moscow at Open Russia, and helped them in the elections. He worked at Navalny's headquarters too. For more than a year he was engaged in the preparation of observers in the elections in 2018. I worked for a year at one time in the Foundation “Needing Help” (“such things”). I did a lot of things: fires, floods, disasters, rallies, promotions, demonstrations.

I wanted to make my charity fund that would be engaged in prevention and help to the victims in an accident. But it went very slowly. And then they called me and offered to go to Georgia. They said: if you want Fallow [scholarship - approx. Ed.] On the study of the South Caucasus?

Nothing kept me in Russia. Over the past 2 years in a row, my grandparents and mom died. Mom had leukemia - heavy blood cancer. By the way, my mother and grandfather are from Kovrov. I spent all my childhood in Kovrov, while my grandfather was alive, I went there all the time. I learned, in my opinion, the Moscow-Rokovrov route: I drove a thousand times, along the bypass around Vladimir, etc.

Fortunately, I have no criminal cases. I also had searches at home in the Khodorkovsky case. But I can return, and probably they will not put me. Although now it is already unknown.

- It turns out that you did not run, but went to work. You probably had fewer problems with adaptation?

- This process went calmly with me. They gave me some time to look around, find housing, introduced me to many people. And then, on the contrary, I began to do this myself: to accept people here, to tell, to prompt something.

Over time, my telegram channel developed very well. In addition to him, we made a group on Facebook “ Expatites in Georgia ”, there are now 6.5 thousand participants. There, people help each other, all the time they tell something.

The main thing is that a person can in life is to help someone, do something around himself, to benefit. I did this in Russia, I am doing this here. I try to be in demand and necessary. They call me 20-30 times a week and ask: how to cross the border, what rules are there, etc.

- And these are not only political emigrants, are these any people?

- Certainly. I don’t care what a person has a religion and for whom he votes if he really has a real problem. Here, cases were completely different: for example, the husband stole the child from his wife and took him to another state. It was necessary to meet, help, do all the procedures that are necessary. Someone lost things, someone wanted to open a legal entity. Here to open an individual entrepreneur or legal entity is a matter of several hours. Submit documents, make an account and you can work tomorrow.

I still can’t survive the story of a girl from the Crimea, who opened a bar in Tbilisi ...

She came to draw up a license for alcohol, paid the UNSU 20 Lari (about 500 rubles), thought there would be a long process of design and all the garbage, and she simply immediately printed a license and issued it

- Sugar Princess (@yasakharnaya) August 9, 2021

- Apparently, therefore, in the rating of ease of business, Georgia is in the top ten countries of the world.

- Naturally. Here is a minimum of bureaucracy that regulates bodies. I have a friend, whom no one has come to for 2 years: neither SES nor a firefighter, nobody. This, perhaps, is even bad, maybe it should be controlled more often.

- I noticed that in Georgia, maybe it will be offended for Georgians, there is some kind of do not care. Both in a good way, and not very good. For example, when I arrived, I lived at the hotel, and no one was cleaned in our room. Although the hotel was not the cheapest.

- It was possible to ask. But, yes, the level of service here is sometimes not very good.

In general, in Georgia there are many minuses and many pluses. And everyone chooses for himself whether it is suitable for him or not.

- Probably one of the minuses is Covid. Now Georgia is one of the leaders in the world in incidence. Apparently, this is because Georgian power is poorly fighting the epidemic.

- He is everywhere. He is in Moscow, I have a lot of people who have been sick, there are those who died in Russia. I would say that Covid is not a minus.

The main disadvantages are others. Firstly, this is a low level of education. You need to be honest. Because good teachers and experts go to work abroad: Israel, Türkiye, Russia, Azerbaijan - where there are more salaries.

The level of medicine in Georgia is not as high as we would like. There are not enough specialists. Doctors here are transferred from hand to hand, as well as other specialists: plumbers, electricians. This is not laziness and do not do not care, as you said, this is the way of life of the southern peoples.

- Probably, this is exactly what I had in mind, if we speak tactfully.

“But this is not only in Georgia.” This may be present in Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain. This is probably a mentality. When you have wine, when you can disrupt grenade or apricot from the branch ... When there was the first Lokdown, I planted a grenade nucleus - it has now grown one and a half meters high. Although it was just a granny. When everything grows here, when you have khinkali, khachapuri and wine ...

I must also say that the infrastructure is poorly developed here. We were now in the crustacean, this is a great place: very beautiful mountains, fields, horses are running. But there is not a single network hotel, although this is a rather large region.

There is not a single more or less good cafe in rang to be a European or some other kitchen. Everywhere khinkali, khachapuri, barbecue and that's it. To take coffee, we went to gas stations.

There are no good applications, good services. I hope that I can do this - a map of the region. For example, I come to raach, open the application, and I have 10 temples, 10 monasteries, 10 waterfalls, 10 points, from which you can see beautiful places, 10 cafes, etc. The tourism administration, probably, could have done this by the present time even with their small budget. Now all this can be found only through a mouth or through Facebook.

- Therefore, your mutual assistance groups in Telegram and Facebook are very in demand.

- I would not exaggerate much. But it’s good that they are in demand. So you have to continue.

- Even from the minuses, I would note the attitude to cats. Although I am not a zoo defender, but sympathetic. And how they relate to cats here, of course, I did not like it.

- And how is it? It seems normal. Everyone feeds cats and dogs here.

- But recently I found very small kittens right on the street, they were simply thrown away. I fed them from the syringe.

Not far from the Presidential Palace found small kittens. Probably someone threw them out. We decided to feed them. Now we do not know what to do with them. There are zoo defenders in Tbilisi who could help? pic.twitter.com/dmjdv3v7vo

- Ilya Kosygin (@lyakosygin) August 7, 2021

- I understand. But here there are simply a huge number of them. This must be done at the state level: sterilization, shelters.

- I was looking for shelters in Tbilisi to take kittens there. But I found only dogs. There are several shelters for dogs in Tbilisi, but there is not a single cat. I came with these kittens in one shelter, by the way, a state, but they told me: “Here they will die with us, in nature they have more chances to survive.” And they didn’t take it, I had to go back with a box of kittens. But what are their chances in “nature” if they themselves still can’t eat?

- We also made an animal group where you can agree on overexposure. Just a lot of animals, I get 5-7 messages per week about attaching a cat and a dog. Therefore, there is simply not enough time.

Another of the minuses is garbage. There is a lot of garbage. And the attitude towards him ... throw a glass from the car here is a common thing. But this is changing: I see that over the past 2 years, groups have appeared that react to this, and the city hall that reacts to the reaction. That is, for example, if you post a photo of the landfill and hide the city hall, then most likely, two days later they will come and remove this landfill. Volunteer movements appear, it just goes slowly. What happened in Russia 10 years ago is just beginning.

- Okay, but from the pluses?

- Definitely - this is nature. Here, unlike many countries, there is everything: 2 hours - and you are in the mountains, in Gudauri, 4 hours - and you are at sea, in Batumi, 2 hours - and you in Kakheti, drink beautiful wine. Even not far from Tbilisi there are many beautiful places where you can relax in nature.

Seasonal vegetables and fruits are very tasty and environmentally friendly. There are several regions where they are grown - this is Kakheti, Marneuli. Tourists often tell me that here cucumbers and tomatoes smell of cucumbers and tomatoes. Basil, coriander, Tarkhun, parsley, other Georgian greens are also very tasty. You can relate to Georgian cuisine differently, it bothers a little. But if you come here like a tourist or just try, it is very tasty. The same khinkali, khachapuri, barbecue. And wine, of course. When you live here for some time, you already start to understand the fault and you can buy the one you like. It is really tasty and not very expensive.

Another great advantage of Georgia is people. Georgians will always come to the rescue.

- I also noticed that people here are more open and friendly, especially in contrast to Russia.

- This is a southern mentality. A little relaxation, a little emotionality.

Russian language, of course. I believe that in Georgia they understand the Russian language 80% and speak about 60% on it, at least a little. Therefore, the Russian -speaking here is very comfortable.

- What do you think about the last wave of political emigrants who began to come here, probably since April?

- It began back in January, after landing Navalny. It is sad that active people who could benefit their country leave it. Someone left in 2012 after protests and “Swamp business”, someone left after the murder of Nemtsov, for someone it worked like some kind of turning point, someone is leaving now. The last wave is much stronger, because there are fewer motivation for the struggle. I talk to the guys and I want to help them. But, probably, now, unfortunately, a person from abroad can bring more benefits than sitting in Russia in prison. This is a sad thesis, but probably fair.

There is, for example, Lesha Gaskarov, with whom I am friends. He served after Bolotnaya for 2.5 years. He simply gave these years. Kostya Kotov, who was tormented in a colony in the Vladimir region. You won’t wish anyone like that. We often meet with the guys who left, and I tell them: when there were large protests of 2011-2012 I was 33, now I am 43, and Putin has not gone anywhere and is not going. I really want to do something and change something, but I want to see some kind of effect. Unfortunately, it is very low. Therefore, I say to the guys: participate, show activity, but do not forget that you have your own life - you need to build relationships, travel, receive positive emotions.