GEORGIA: Ivanishvili in Press Freedom Predators List & more – 6th Nov 2025

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 6th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Wednesday, the 29th of October, the UK-based Foreign Policy Centre published a report saying Russia uses Georgia as a key hub to bypass Western sanctions. It says Georgia moved from a passive transit country to an active facilitator, using its location, financial system, and political flexibility. The report argues Georgia profits from trade and finance linked to Russia, boosting Moscow’s influence on its economy and politics.

Re-exports, tourism, and remittances made up 14.5% of Georgia’s GDP in twenty twenty-two. Imports of dual-use goods into Georgia, such as chips and electronics, have risen sharply, suggesting that the re-exports to Russia had military purposes. The report links this to the government’s pro-Russian tilt, offshore tax incentives, and weak oversight, warning that if this sanctions bubble bursts, it could collapse Georgia’s economy.

Check the full report in English in the show notes.

Still on important documents… The European Commission’s annual enlargement report, published on Saturday, the 3rd of November, gives a sharply negative assessment of Georgia, citing severe democratic backsliding. It highlights arrests of opposition figures and protesters, pressure on media and civil society, and laws targeting activists.

The Commission says Georgia’s candidate status now exists only on paper, as the government’s actions halted EU integration. It calls the ruling party’s repressive laws unprecedented among candidate states. The report urges the government to reverse course, repeal restrictive laws, and protect core rights. Until then, the EU will limit contacts and aid to the government while boosting support for Georgian civil society and independent media

You can also read this report in English with the link in the show notes.

Reporters Without Borders added Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Georgian Dream or the Kotsebi founder, to its twenty twenty-five list of Press Freedom Predators, alongside Russia’s President Putin, Belarus’s President Lukashenko, Azerbaijan's president Aliyev, and other authoritarian leaders.

The organization describes Ivanishvili as an oligarch who still controls power through his business empire, including TV channels that promote his party’s agenda. It says Georgia’s media pluralism has declined under his influence, with journalists facing harassment, violence, and arrests. Reporters Without Borders points to the imprisonment of journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, pressure on NGOs, and the persecution of opposition media as part of this pattern.

The group warns that such figures use business, law, and propaganda to silence independent reporting worldwide and urges accountability for those who attack journalists and suppress press freedom.

On Thursday, the 30th of October, the NGO Transparency International (TI) commented on the Kotsebi’s current anti-corruption campaign targeting former officials. TI says that over the last five years, 250 cases of elite corruption have been reported, involving over 200 senior officials, including ministers, MPs, judges, and municipal leaders.

The organization says investigative bodies, prosecutors, and security agencies have helped hide these schemes for years, and that the ruling party is using anti-corruption rhetoric to punish the wing of the Kotsebi party that lost the battle for influence.

TI states that Georgia is run on kleptocratic principles and calls for genuine investigations into large-scale corruption that has drained the national budget.

Speaking of corruption investigations, on Friday, the 31st, authorities arrested Koba Gabunia, the former Deputy Minister of Agriculture. They also raided the house of Irakli Karseladze, the former Agriculture Minister, but he was not arrested. This is part of the investigation that looks into the embezzlement of millions of dollars meant for the renovation of public kindergartens.

On the same day, but in an unrelated case, the Court ordered the arrest of Vladimir Khundadze, former Deputy Minister of the Internal Revenue Service, who is accused of illegal production and sale of alcoholic products. He is currently hiding.

It's a bit of funny news. On Friday, the 31st, a journalist asked Gia Volski, one of the veteran MPs of the Kotsebi, to comment on corruption cases against his former colleagues. Volski, who has been known to produce unintentionally funny quotes, told the Journalist that he is thankful to God that not all of the government is corrupt.

Ruling party’s PM Irakli Kobakhidze also made a comment about the corruption cases. While not naming specific names, he said that there were doubts about some officials for some time, but they were waiting to gather evidence before taking action. He also said that these people were traitors who decided to enrich themselves during a very rough period in the country's political life.

Next up, police keep arresting pro-European protesters under the law we have reported on previous shows, which punishes blocking the road and wearing masks by up to fifteen days imprisonment and up to one year imprisonment in case of repeated violation.

In what is a new low for Georgian police, they arrested a seventy-one-year-old protester, Aza Chilachava, for this offense. On Monday, the 3rd, the Court sentenced her to just one day in prison.

Aza, who is an internally displaced person from the breakaway region of Abkhazia, says that she will continue to protest against the Russian regime even if she is the last person to do so.

On Tuesday, the 4th, authorities conducted a special operation against members of the criminal underworld. Part of it happened in Lagodeki, in eastern Georgia, where the suspect opened fire and seriously wounded a member of the Special Forces. The suspect was killed in the firefight. He turned out to be Mirza Aliev, who was a former member of the town's municipal council. Interestingly, he had this position first as a member of the United National Movement or the Natsebi before twenty fourteen and then as a member of the Kotsebi.

On Wednesday,the 5th, police arrested Mancho Giorgobiani, a well-known Kotsebi propagandist. She was charged with organizing group violence. Days before, she had a verbal conflict with an employee of a supermarket, after which she contacted several young people, who brutally attacked that employee.

A day before her arrest, she wrote a lengthy post on Facebook about the current Minister of Internal Affairs. She accused him of being too arrogant and strict in his approaches. She threatened him that he would lose his position because of her connections. Now she may spend up to nine years in prison.

Afgan Sadygov, an Azerbaijani journalist currently living in Georgia, has been fined 275,000 Lari, which is over 100,000 US dollars, for repeatedly blocking the road during protests. He became aware of this on Wednesday, the 5th. Turns out police fined him fifty-five times, from July to October, but did not inform him, despite knowing his contact information.

On Wednesday the 5th, during a conference of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s former Minister of Defense and current Chair of the Security Council, spoke about Georgia and praised the Kotsebi for their resilience against destructive forces during the municipal elections. He said that the Kotsebi were able to defend the interests of Georgia and its people, adding that the South Caucasus is now a far more stable region and Russia played an important role in that.

In an unusual turn of events, Georgian protest anthem “Ole, Ola” was played in London’s O2 Academy Brixton, a popular music venue. It was played by German DJ and Producer Acid Pauli. It is unknown how the song ended up so far from its home. This song has caused a lot of controversy in Georgia. The Kotsebi Tituskebi have attacked its composer, Kordz, and several people who have performed it, as it featured very insulting lyrics toward the ruling party.

Finally, in a heartwarming story by Mariam Nikuradze, two souls have found family in each other while fighting for Georgia. Orphan Archil Museliantsi met with sixty-year-old Tsaro Oshakmashvili in a protest last year, after the fraudulent parliamentary elections. Their friendship became strong on Facebook Messenger, until one day Archil stopped replying — he had been arrested at a protest in late November. Tsaro attended his trial, where he was sentenced to four years in jail.

Tsaro started really getting to know Archill by attending court hearings, talking to his friends, and reading his letters. She started to become the mother that Archil had never had, and he referred to her as such in the letters he sent her from prison.

This story shows that love for one's homeland can create other loving ties, even family ties.

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

We have some new t-shirts coming out soon, just in time for Christmas! Stay tuned!

Nakhvamdis!