Dmitry Klimenko is putting the final touches to a new nightclub in Tbilisi’s central Vake Park, aimed at drawing some of the tens of thousands of disoriented fellow Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians who fled to Georgia in recent months.
A veteran of seven nightclubs he opened in his hometown of Novosibirsk over the years, Klimenko left Russia on March 7, as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine darkened the political climate at home.
"It’s what I know how to do,” said Klimenko, as first one and then a second pair of curious Russians stopped by to look at "The Balance,” his latest venture. "When I asked around people said: ‘Do it! We are lost here.’”