GEORGIA: A European Statement & more – 17th July 2025

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 17th of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Friday, the 11th, foreign ministers from seventeen European countries made a joint statement about Georgia turning into an authoritarian state. They said the ruling party, the Georgian Dream or the Kotsebi, was jailing opposition leaders, activists, and journalists for political reasons, right before local municipal elections. They said this crackdown, along with new laws that target civil society, put Georgia’s democracy and ties with Europe at serious risk. They urged the government to release detainees, scrap repressive laws, and start a national dialogue before it’s too late.

The Kotsebi responded by saying that their statement spread disinformation and unfairly attacked Georgia and its democracy. They said the arrests followed legal procedures and only two of those jailed were even planning to run in local elections.

In related news, on Tuesday, the 15th, Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, warned that Georgia could lose its visa-free travel with the EU if it doesn’t follow key recommendations by the end of August. She said the Georgian government must protect basic rights like free speech, peaceful protest, and privacy. Kallas pointed out that jailing seven opposition leaders clearly goes against these principles. She stressed that the EU can’t keep offering benefits to a government that doesn’t take its EU candidate status seriously.

If Georgia fails to act, the EU will have to respond, and that could mean real consequences for Georgian citizens.

Since we mentioned the upcoming municipal elections earlier, on Monday, the 14th, the Strong Georgia Coalition or Dzlieri - Lelo and Gogi Gakharia’s party For Georgia or Sakartvelostvis signed a memorandum of cooperation for municipal elections. They say they will try to agree on neutral, non-partisan mayoral candidates or back shared party nominees. They hope to achieve victory in big cities, especially Tbilisi, where the opposition has the most voters.

Out of four opposition parties that received mandates in last year’s parliamentary elections, two are boycotting the municipal elections, including the Coalition for Change, or Tsvlilebebistvis and the United National Movement, or the Natsebi. They were the ones who received the most votes from the opposition.

Next up, on Tuesday, the 15th, media outlets shared the news that Gogi Bachiashvili, former head of Georgia’s national co-investment fund and one-time aide to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, ended up in the hospital after a violent incident in prison on Friday, the 11th. A Georgian court had earlier found him guilty of defrauding Ivanishvili of 8,000 bitcoins, worth hundreds of millions and sentenced him to eleven years. He fled the country to the United Arab Emirates, but was caught and brought back during a secretive special operation.

Bachiashvili said an unknown man entered his cell, beat him with his fists and glass, and seriously injured him. He believes the attack was meant to pressure him into handing over access to his bank and crypto assets, and accused the prison administration of working with criminals, saying his life was in danger.

On Monday, the 14th, the top floor of an apartment block near Sadguris Moedani underground station in Tbilisi collapsed. Two people died and another went to the hospital. Emergency crews, firefighters, and police rushed to the scene and evacuated residents.

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze visited the site and said the building was dangerously unstable and marked for demolition. He said officials had warned residents several times and offered them the opportunity to join a resettlement program. If all of them had accepted the offer (as this required unanimous consent), the building would have been demolished and replaced with a new one.

You can check out a video showing the collapse and another emotional one of a man reuniting with his wife. He thought she had died during the collapse.

Speaking of videos, on Friday, the 11th, footage showing a policeman roughly handling a senior citizen and causing him to lose consciousness went viral on Facebook. The senior citizen, Paata Samarguliani, said he witnessed police being aggressive with a young man in front of his kids and asked the officers to calm down. When the policeman told him to mind his own business, Paata responded that one day, people like him would make them pay for such actions. The police then tried to detain him, handling him roughly, as seen in the video, which caused him to collapse.

Police later released a statement saying the video doesn’t show the full context and aims to discredit law enforcement.

You can judge for yourself by watching the video in the show notes.

A similar situation happened just a day after, when a group of people grabbed a man out of his car in the center of the city, pushed him into their own and sped off. Later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that it was a police operation, and the person was arrested for disobeying police orders.

However, witnesses were left confused as the arrest looked more like a kidnapping than a police procedure; no one was in uniform, the vehicle wasn’t a police car, and the policemen acted like thugs. One girl even tried to intervene by opening the door of the car and trying to free the detained person, before the car sped off.

Wanna check out the video? Link in the show notes.

On that note about kidnapping, on Sunday, the 13th, relatives of Laura Avtorkhanova, a twenty-four-year-old Chechen woman who fled to Georgia to escape abuse, tried to abduct her. They found her at a café and then pressured her at a police station to say she wanted to go back to Chechnya willingly.

Fortunately, she managed to alert her shelter’s staff, and public outcry stopped the plan. Her family had tracked her down despite a court order requiring police to warn her if they entered the country — but she got no warning. Laura remains under protection in a safe location.

On to another story involving the police but with a different outcome, on Monday, the 15th, five people attacked police officers in the village of Kheltubani, in eastern Georgia. Three officers suffered injuries from sharp weapons, including a scythe, and were hospitalized.

Conflict started when police stopped a car driven by a minor without a license. The minor resisted, and his father and relatives joined in the fight. Authorities quickly arrested five suspects aged between fourteen and sixty-two and charged them with group assault on law enforcement officers, punishable by seven to eleven years in prison.

In other news, on Wednesday, the 16th, UNICEF shared research about Georgian youth. It tested the skills of 155 participants, aged eighteen to twenty, from eight different cities. About 25% of them couldn’t clearly express their thoughts and used very basic language. Around 33% struggled to form solid arguments, showing weak critical thinking. Writing skills were especially low among ethnic minorities with poor Georgian language skills. Most could follow discussions but made grammatical mistakes or used slang. Despite good digital skills, many lacked knowledge in cybersecurity and science. UNICEF says schools must boost support, especially for vulnerable youth, starting from early education.

In business news, Basis Bank, owned by the Chinese Hualing Group, has decided to purchase Liberty Bank, the third-largest bank in Georgia. The National Bank of Georgia must approve the deal and is currently reviewing whether the sale complies with local competition laws.

Liberty Bank is owned by Guram Rukhadze, one of the richest people in Georgia and a close associate of Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the Kotsebi. Rukhadze also owns Imedi TV, Georgia’s largest and most-watched television channel, widely known as the main outlet for government propaganda. He said several months ago that he planned to sell Liberty Bank. The deal shows the growing Chinese interest in Georgia.

Continuing with business, on Monday, the 14th, the financial police raided companies at Lasha Papashvili’s business center. Authorities say they were investigating scam call centers. Two businesses were shut down and their electronic devices taken.

Papashvili is a multi-millionaire businessman with close ties to the Kotsebi. Many believe the ruling party is involved or at least allows scam call centers to operate in the country and receives kickbacks from them. So, the news about the raid was a surprise to everyone.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Nakhvamdis!