It is forbidden to cross the border between Russia and Georgia (Verkhny Lars checkpoint) on foot, on bicycles and scooters. This is reported by Baza, as well as "Rise" with reference to a source in the law enforcement agencies of North Ossetia.
Now only drivers and passengers in vehicles (cars and buses) can leave the Russian Federation for Georgia again. According to Baza, those who have already passed the checkpoints and stand in line at the border on foot can still cross the border on foot.
A source from The Insider confirmed that the footpath had been closed. According to him, this happened on the night of September 29. Yesterday there were “crowds of people” in the tunnels, but today only cars and buses cross the border. At the same time, no one was driven back, probably at night everyone standing in line went on foot.
Another interlocutor, who has already entered Georgia, claims that there are prices for certain services at the border. So, escorting a car around the convoy in the oncoming lane on September 25 cost 40 thousand rubles, on September 26 – 50 thousand, and on September 27 – already 100 thousand rubles. On September 28, the price jumped to 250 thousand rubles. For travel inside the ambulance, one million rubles is taken as a passenger, so 12 citizens can pass at the same time. According to the source, the escorts do not take people to the checkpoint and leave people 1.5 kilometers away. The interlocutor added that thousands of people were standing in the tunnel in the neutral zone, all of them passed during the night.
While the Russians are trying to leave the country en masse against the backdrop of “partial” mobilization, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin proposes to give cars abandoned at the border to the families of men who went to fight in Ukraine. According to him, now they are compiling lists of everyone who leaves: “Do you think they leave and no one sees who went, why did they go?”
A multi-kilometer traffic jam formed at the Russian-Georgian border checkpoint Upper Lars a day after the announcement of mobilization, The Insider published a video taken from a copter. The queue of cars and people continues to grow, now there is a humanitarian catastrophe. Russian armored personnel carriers arrived at the border with Georgia, the authorities explained that this was “in case the reservists want to break through the checkpoint without completing any border formalities to leave the country.” The Insider talked to eyewitnesses who managed to cross the Georgian border.