Conducting a special operation in Ukraine has seriously strained Russia's relations with its neighbors, including those who yesterday were considered allies or were more or less neutral. For example, with Georgia.

It is known that immediately after the announcement of partial mobilization in Russia, the border checkpoint between the two countries "Upper Lars" became the most popular point for leaving our country. The Georgian authorities reported that only in the first two weeks since September 21, 80 thousand Russians crossed the border.

And on Thursday, February 2, a message came from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of North Ossetia that passage through the Upper Lars checkpoint on the border with Georgia is closed to all types of cars "until further notice".

The ministry explained the decision by the deterioration of weather conditions in Georgia. In this regard, it is allegedly impossible to ensure the safety of the movement of cars, and in addition, they referred to the recommendations of the Georgian border police.

Meanwhile, the Georgian opposition party "For Georgia" has submitted to parliament a resolution on the need to shorten the period of visa-free stay of Russian citizens in the country, as well as to leave in force at this stage the restriction of air travel. The politicians explained that the main reason for such a statement is the uncontrolled migration of Russian citizens, which damages the security of the country.

The National Democratic Institute of the USA has published the results of a survey conducted in Georgia. Compared to the previous survey, the number of those who believe that Georgia is developing in the right direction has increased from 23% to 37%. In addition, 60% of the population supported Georgia's non-interference in the conflict in Ukraine.

Against this background, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili made a very loud statement in an interview with Bloomberg that Georgia demands that the withdrawal of Russian troops from Abkhazia and Ossetia be included in the future "peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine".

Russian experts have assessed this call in different ways:

So, political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev writes in his channel:

"Who's next? Most likely, Japan with the Kuriles and not only will be ahead of everyone. Poland will demand Kaliningrad and the whole of Western Belarus together with Lithuania. Finland is the "original Finnish port" of Arkhangelsk and Komi to the Ob River. And this is just the beginning..."

Analyst Anatoly Nesmian also argues in approximately the same vein:

"This may be the beginning of more serious statements. We have completely disputed territories with Japan, and in a dead-end version. There is Transnistria. After all, since the post-war structure of Europe has already been violated, and by Russia itself, then the question of Kaliningrad may suddenly arise. Well, there will be questions inside Russia."

The political scientist Sergey Markedonov responded much more calmly:

"It seems that following the OSCE Minsk Group, another Caucasian negotiation format will be "frozen" in the near future. It's about the Geneva discussions on security in Transcaucasia."

But the experts of the popular analytical channel "By the Way" decided that the President of Georgia is simply taking advantage of a difficult situation:

"It seems that Ms. Zurabishvili is trying to follow Zelensky's example – if you ask for everything, more and very urgently, yesterday, mentioning the threat of "terrible Russia" as loudly as possible, then perhaps something will fall from the "world community".