GEORGIA: Opposition Leader Arrested & more – 29th May 2025

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 29th of May twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

Two weeks ago, we reported that Irakli Okruashvili, a former minister of defense under the United National Movement, or Natsebi, was arrested for refusing to pay bail. Authorities set the bail when they charged him with ignoring a summons from parliament’s temporary investigative committee, which the Georgian Dream, or the Kotsebi, created to investigate alleged crimes under the Natsebi government.

On Thursday, 22nd, Zura Japaridze, a prominent politician and one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change – Gvaramia, Melia, Girchi, Droa, or Tsvlilebebistvis – met the same fate. He had also ignored the committee’s summons and refused to pay his bail.

A large number of police officers were surrounding the court and blocking all entrances when a fight broke out between Japaridze’s supporters and bailiffs. Police arrested one person.

The ambassador from the Czech Republic and a representative of Amnesty International also attended the trial.

On Monday, the 26th, Georgia celebrated Independence Day. It’s one of the most popular holidays in the country, as it marks the declaration of independence of the first Georgian Republic in nineteen eighteen. This year’s celebrations showed just how divided the country is right now.

The ruling party held the usual events: a display of military equipment, helicopters and fighter jets flying over Tbilisi, and a ceremony where new soldiers swore into service.

People who don’t see the current government as legitimate organized several marches in Tbilisi. They started in different parts of the city but all ended up on Rustaveli Avenue, where the fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili, spoke to the crowd.

Many politicians sent their congratulations to Georgia. Most European ones addressed the people in general, while others—like the presidents of Belarus and Azerbaijan—directly congratulated the ruling party.

In similar news. A day after the holiday, Misha Kavelashvili, the Kotsebi President, shared a letter from President Trump congratulating Georgia on its Independence Day and expressing hope to deepen economic ties between the two countries.

While the Kotsebi was celebrating this letter as a political win, the U.S. Embassy in Georgia posted on Facebook that Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling party, declined an invitation from the U.S. Ambassador. During the planned meeting, the ambassador intended to deliver a message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio about necessary steps to improve bilateral relations.

Ivanishvili explained himself in a public statement, saying that he felt uncomfortable attending the meeting because he believed the U.S. was blackmailing him through the sanctions imposed on him. He said he offered to send the Prime Minister in his place, but the Ambassador rejected this suggestion.

On a related note, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz released a joint statement for Georgia’s Independence Day. They congratulated the Georgian people and showed support for the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

At the same time, they criticized the Kotsebi for cracking down on civil society, the media, and government opponents. They called on the ruling party to drop laws that go against European standards, restart key reforms, and protect basic rights like free speech and peaceful protest.

The leaders said Georgians clearly want a European future and shouldn’t lose that chance because of the government’s actions. They urged the authorities to reopen dialogue with the opposition and civil society.

Next up, on Thursday, the 22nd, Moldova extradited twenty-one-year-old Georgian citizen Mikheil Chkhikvishvili—also known as Mishka or the Butcher Commander—to the U.S. He led a violent neo-Nazi group called the Maniacal Killing Cult and faces charges for plotting mass killings, including a plan to poison children with candy on New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn.

The U.S. Justice Department says he recruited people to bomb and poison Jewish communities and racial minorities. His propaganda inspired real attacks worldwide. In August twenty twenty-four, a man stabbed five people outside a Turkish mosque while wearing Nazi symbols. He livestreamed the attack and shared a link to Chkhikvishvili’s Hater’s Handbook.

If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces up to twenty years in prison. Authorities say his extradition is a major step toward justice and a reminder of how extremist hate spreads online.

This past weekend, Tbilisi Open Air—one of the largest and oldest music festivals in Georgia—took place. Unlike previous years, this time it featured almost exclusively local Georgian artists. One of them, Erekle Getsadze, put on a small performance on stage by throwing a Russian flag on the ground and pretending to urinate on it. While the crowd mostly loved the act, some politicians didn’t.

Politicians from the ruling party and pro-Kotsebi journalists slammed the action as a cheap provocation, saying it had no artistic value.

Surprisingly, the act caught attention in Russia, too. Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, went on a tirade against the artist and said that Russian law enforcement would address the matter.

Speaking of Russia, the Bank of Georgia, the biggest bank in the country, now limits Russian citizens from buying luxury goods in stores with its cards. They can only purchase items that cost up to 300 euros.

Russian media first reported the news, pointing out that this is the first time a bank—not a store—has blocked luxury purchases. Russians have started using foreign bank cards more often since Visa and Mastercard left Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

The EU banned the sale of luxury goods over €300 to Russian citizens back in twenty twenty-two, and similar rules apply in the US and UK. Georgia’s Bank Association, which includes all commercial banks, has repeatedly said that banks follow international sanctions and will continue to do so.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency released a global threat report that briefly mentions Georgia. It says Russia almost certainly wants to pull Georgia back into its sphere of influence. The report says that after the October parliamentary elections last year, the Kotsebi-led government created conditions that helped Russia grow its influence in the country.

Check out the full report with the link in the show notes!

In related news, on Wednesday, the 28th, news agency Reuters shared Putin’s conditions for ending the war in Ukraine. According to three Russian sources familiar with the negotiations, Putin wants a written pledge from Western leaders that NATO will stop expanding eastward. This includes Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and any other former Soviet country.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the 28th, Vakhtang Gomelauri, the Minister of Internal Affairs, resigned. The decision surprised everyone. Gomelauri, widely seen as Ivanishvili’s closest ally, served as his chief of security until twenty thirteen. The UK and several European countries sanctioned him for his role in the brutal suppression of pro-European protests last year, while the United States placed him on the Magnitsky list, which targets individuals responsible for human rights abuses.

Gomelauri said he wanted to spend more time with his family. He chose this moment to resign because he believes the situation is, more or less, peaceful right now.

In other news, the criminal situation in Tbilisi seems to be spiraling out of control. Another shooting happened on Friday, the 23rd, late at night. Fortunately, no one appears to be injured. The incident took place right in the center of the city, next to Heroes Square.

Witnesses say one of the shooters fired from a car with tinted windows. Someone even managed to film the car, with a gun pointed out the window. The plate numbers are clearly visible, but no one has been arrested so far.

Wanna see the video? Link in the show notes!

Closing this episode, on Tuesday, the 27th, authorities arrested Gogi Bachiashvili, former director of Ivanishvili’s Georgian Co-Investment Bank and his close confidant, at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border.

Last month, he fled Georgia a day before the court sentenced him to eleven years for defrauding Ivanishvili and stealing cryptocurrency worth several hundred million dollars.

Bachiashvili said that Ivanishvili simply lent him money, which he then invested in bitcoin, and insisted that he repaid the loan in full. He had been hiding in the United Araba Emirates, but said local authorities unexpectedly arrested him and transported him to Georgia.

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

We hope you’re enjoying the update! If you have questions, ideas, or feedback, send us an email at info@rorshok.com.

Nakhvamdis!