Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
For the first time in many years, Russia has started issuing “work visas” to Georgian citizens, i.e. permissions to work in the RF. At the first stage, such visas will be issued to about a thousand Georgian drivers who are licensed and qualified for freight and passenger transportation. The agreement to resume full-scale automobile traffic, including freight and passenger transportation, was reached during negotiations in Prague between the special representative of the Georgian Prime Minister for the settlement of relations with the Russian Federation and the Russian vice foreign minister.
The first progress was made in 2012, when Moscow allowed Georgian drivers to carry out regular bus journeys from Tbilisi to the capital of North Ossetia. Today no one would be surprised to see the conspicuous advertisement of a bus trip to Vladikavkaz down the Georgian Military Road. However, this is only valid for Georgian citizens who have obtained a Russian visa, and the visa regime between the two countries has not been lifted so far.
Issuing visas to drivers is being perceived as the first robin, for this is an opportunity to earn some money in Russia for the citizens of a country with over 50% unemployment in some cities. The site of the Agency for Ground Transportation under the Ministry of Finance has already published the details, as well as the application form to fill in. "I would like to carry our freight/passenger transportation on the territory of the RF. Please apply at the relevant departments", it is written in the document. In addition, the applicant is to submit an extract from the state register service confirming their tax residency, a notarized labor contract with the corporate carrier for a period of no less than one year, a driving license, the applicant’s passport and the vehicle registration certificate.
The profession of truck driver was one of the most prestigious and desired back in Soviet Georgia. At that period, huge trucks with trailers could often be seen in the courtyards of private houses, and their owners were proud to tell their friends about transporting goods all over the vast territory of Russia. But the fairy-tale was over as soon as the huge country collapsed. International vehicle traffic between the RF and independent Georgia used to be regulated by the Agreement on Automobile Transportation of February 3, 1994. It was signed during President Yeltsin’s one-day visit to Tbilisi. But Russia unilaterally ended the agreement and cancelled automobile traffic with Georgia in October 2006. It was a moment of marked deterioration of Russian-Georgian relations, after Russian citizens had been arrested on a charge of being involved with the Intelligence Service.
In those new conditions, the goodwill demonstrated by Moscow is important not only from the unemployed truck drivers’ point of view, or as the first precedent of issuing legal “work visas”. It is also important in terms of the increase of exports of Georgian agricultural products to Russia, thanks to the mentioned process of “gradual warming of relations” after the shift in power in Georgia.
