According to Kommersant, pro-Western NGOs were worried about the statistical data released by the Georgian authorities the day before. 

In the letter, the authors claim that between January and July 2022, the rate of arrivals of people from Russia to Georgia "increased significantly."

They also drew attention to the fact that after the start of the special operation in Ukraine, about 6.4 thousand Russian companies were registered in Georgia, indicating that this is "seven times higher than the figure for the entire 2021."

The NGOs believe that this indicates that the Russians are using Georgia "to mitigate the effect of international sanctions against the Russian Federation."

At the end of May, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced that the Georgian authorities had stepped up the work of the Kazbegi-Upper Lars customs checkpoint in order to exclude the circulation of goods whose import into Russia is prohibited by Western sanctions.