According to the OC media, where Zhalavdi Geriyev worked as a stringer, the Chechen journalist who spent three years in prison in Russia after being tortured has been refused admission to Georgia without reason. On May 6, Geriyev landed in Tbilisi from Budapest. However, he was informed upon arrival that he was not allowed to enter the country. He said that his paperwork was taken away to be examined when a border patrol officer noticed in his passport that he was born in Chechnya. According to Geriyev, everything was like in a typical Russian airport. He said the Georgian government was unprofessional and unfair to North Caucasian citizens.

Natia Kapanadze, the director of the Georgian media advocacy group Media Ombudsman, criticized the government's actions. According to Kapanadze, the administration exclusively acted this way with journalists who were critical of the Russian government or those from Ukraine. According to her, this trend started when Ukrainian journalists were denied entry to Georgia in 2021; they wanted to meet and interview the third president [Mikheil Saakashvili] - for this reason, they were detained. "After that, many journalists who criticized Russia were also jailed," the director added.

Together with the regional rights organization Rights Georgia, Geriyev declared he would appeal the ruling. Nevertheless, based on other instances she had worked on, Kapanadze claimed that the likelihood of success was low and that the process was long and complicated.

Before entering the country, Geriyev claimed he had anticipated that he might be turned away. "I know several colleagues who were also denied entry last year, so the denial was probably justified," he added.

Notably, Bekkhan Gelgoyev, a human rights activist, and Geriyev were both previously denied entrance and sent back to Russia in 2014. But since then, he has made several trips there. While working for Caucasian Knot in Chechnya in April 2016, he was kidnapped by security personnel.