Russia will allow Georgian citizens to stay in the country without a visa for more than 90 days, including for the purposes of working and studying.

President Putin signed the decree to expand the visa-free regime for Georgian citizens on Thursday, which went into effect immediately.

According to the document, the visa-free entry regime to Russia now applies to citizens of Georgia arriving ‘to the Russian Federation for the purpose of carrying out work activities or for a period of more than 90 days for temporary stay in the Russian Federation, including for the purpose of receiving an education’.

Previously, Georgians were required to obtain a visa in order to work or study in the country.

Russia introduced visa restrictions for Georgian citizens in 2000, while the Georgian Government unilaterally rescinded visas for Russian citizens in 2012.

In July 2019, Putin banned air travel with Georgia following anti-government and anti-Kremlin demonstrations in June of that year.

The protests, dubbed Gavrilov’s Night, came in response to the Georgian Government’s invitation to Russian Communist Party MP Sergei Gavrilov to address the Georgian Parliament from the speaker’s tribune.

In May last year, Putin lifted the visa regime with Georgia as well as the ban on Russian airlines flying directly to Georgia. 

[Read more: ‘Russian aircraft won’t land us in the EU’ — Georgians protest upcoming flights with Russia]

On Thursday, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitri Peskov stated that the simplification of the entry and exit procedures for Georgian citizens was not connected to a new stage in relations between the two countries.

The two countries do not have official diplomatic relations, after Georgia cut ties following Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008.

‘Interstate relations are one thing; humanitarian relations are another. When it comes to dialogue between the peoples of the two countries, it has not been interrupted’, he said. ‘These are normal processes’.

Despite Peskov’s statement, many government critics in Georgia along with the country’s Western partners, have been wary of the intensification of relations between Georgia and Russia.

Some critics in Georgia have labelled the ruling Georgian Dream party pro-Russian for years. This intensified after the government passed the controversial foreign agent law amidst mass protests and controversy. The law is similar to one used by Russian authorities to crush dissent there.

On Tuesday, Belarusian president Aliaksandr Lukashenka said at a summit in Moscow that he would like to see the ‘CIS family’ restored to its previous composition.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was set up following the collapse of the Soviet Union and is composed of a number of former Soviet republics. Georgia withdrew from the organisation following the 2008 August War.

‘It would be very good if Georgia returned to our family, Moldova resumed its full participation, and the Ukrainian authorities, in whose restoration of normal life we ​​will have to participate, came to their senses. I am absolutely sure that this will happen. It is just a matter of time’, Lukashenka said.

Ukraine was never a member of the CIS, and following Russia’s full scale invasion of the country in 2022, it broke off all ties with the organisation. Following the invasion, Moldova announced it would withdraw from the CIS by the end of 2024.