GEORGIA: Prisoners of Conscience Sentenced & more – 4th Sep 2025

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 4th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Tuesday, the 2nd, a Tbilisi court sentenced eight people arrested during pro-European protests in November twenty twenty-four. They are known as prisoners of conscience, due to the widely held belief that their arrest was political. Judge Tamar Mchedlishvili changed their charges from organizing group violence to organizing or joining disruptive group actions, which carry a lighter punishment. Zviad Tsetskhladze, Vepkhia Kasradze, and Vasil Kadzelashvili received two years and six months in prison, while five others got two years. Their prison time counts from arrest, so they will serve between one year and three months to one year and nine months.

The new Article 226 punishes disruptive group actions without requiring proof of violence, unlike the original Article 225, which requires evidence of violent acts. Defense lawyers argue the court had no evidence of organized activity and plan to appeal.

On the same day, police arrested more than a dozen pro-European activists protesting on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi. Authorities said the group tried to block the road and ignored lawful police orders. All detainees face administrative charges.

While officials reported sixteen arrests, witnesses and activists told the media that the real number was twenty-two. Among those detained was the daughter of Otar Chrdileli, a friend of Mayor Kaladze and the Georgian Dream’s or the Kotsebi’s candidate for Tbilisi City Council.

Next up, on Monday, the 1st, the Kotsebi’s president Misha Kavelashvili published an open letter to US President Donald Trump, urging him to pay more attention to Georgia. He said Washington was ignoring Georgia despite shared values between the two governments. Kavelashvili accused the deep state of pushing unrest in Georgia through groups like USAID, while Trump’s administration looked away. He said that Georgians prevented several attempts at revolution in recent years and remained united against outside interference.

Kavelashvili praised Trump for improving ties with Georgia’s neighbors, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and even Russia, but showed disappointment that Georgia stayed off the radar. At the end of the letter, he asked Trump to reset relations with Georgia.

Speaking of lack of attention, Georgia has been ignored by its news strategic partner China as well, which did not invite the representatives of the ruling party to the 80th anniversary of WWII victory, held in Beijing on Wednesday the 3rd. This seems unusual as both Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders attended the event. Recall that Armenia and China had also signed an agreement of strategic partnership, marking the growing involvement of China in the region.

Changing topics, in our previous episode, we reported that the Tbilisi Court froze the bank accounts of seven NGOs at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office. Authorities said they are investigating them for trying to sabotage the government during pro-European protests. Since then, pro-government TV channels have been running propaganda against these NGOs, presenting their purchases of basic protective equipment as evidence of anti-state activity.

Their big reveal was that these NGOs bought medical masks, goggles for eye protection, a few raincoats and first aid kits. None of them in significant amounts. The only thing that can be qualified as some sort of offensive equipment was thirty-five pepper sprays, which the Social Justice Center purchased – even the most adherent of the Kotsebi voters would find this hardly enough to topple a government.

While Kakhi Kaladze is running his re-election campaign as the mayor of Tbilisi for a third term, he still finds time to spew anti-Western rhetoric, mainly aimed against the EU.

On Monday, the 1st, he said that the EU has completely lost the values Georgia once chased and that its bureaucracy now causes problems for everyone, including partner countries. He also defended the Russian Law targeting NGOs, saying that it brings more financial transparency to politics.

Kaladze said that the country has a great record on human rights, compared to the previous government. Of course, he didn’t mention that over 400 people were brutally assaulted and some of them tortured by the Kotsebi’s special forces during pro-European protests.

On that note about the EU, a new Eurobarometer survey shows how EU citizens feel about Georgia joining the EU if the country meets all the required criteria. 46% of citizens from the twenty-seven EU member states support Georgia’s membership, while 43% oppose it. Support is highest in Sweden at 71%, followed by Lithuania and Latvia at 62%, and Denmark at 61%. Opposition is strongest in Austria, where 64% reject Georgia’s membership, followed by the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, and France.

In general, 56% of EU citizens support further enlargement of the bloc.

In other news, on Monday, the 1st, Alec Raufoglu, a Washington-based journalist covering the Caucasus, reported that Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin is opposing the inclusion of the MEGOBARI Act in the US’s annual defense bill. The act aims to hold the Kotsebi accountable for democratic backsliding and Russian-style laws.

The House of Representatives already passed it earlier this year, and now it's the Senate's turn, where ninety-eight senators support the act and only two are against it, including Mullin.

His stance surprised many, since he previously criticized the Kotsebi and Bidzina Ivanishvili, calling Ivanishvili a Russian-trained oligarch.

A shocking incident in Kutaisi, western Georgia, went viral after a TikTok livestream showed a grandmother hitting her two-year-old grandchild. The video captured the child knocking over a plate of food, after which the grandmother struck the kid on the hand and head. After public outrage, the police arrested her on charges of violence.

Her daughter defended her, saying there was no abuse, that authorities are not interested in protecting the child’s interests; they just want her mom in prison. She also accused social media users of targeted bullying, warning that the online pressure could drive her mother to self-harm. The daughter said the arrested woman has poor health, as she suffers from goiter and often requires emergency care.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the 3rd, Tbilisi Mayor Kaladze announced that starting in twenty twenty-six, Tbilisi will roll out a program to replace dangerous buildings in the city’s historic districts. The plan allows the municipality to fully buy properties from owners, but only if everyone in a building agrees. Officials say they will pay full market value, making sure people get fair compensation. Once cleared, these areas will be ready for new investments, keeping Tbilisi’s historic look while opening space for modern development.

Officially there are over 10,000 buildings in Tbilisi that are in dangerous conditions, which is a huge headache for the municipality. Recall that last month, we reported that a roof partially collapsed in one of those buildings, leaving two people dead. Most of these buildings do not have historic categorization, so this program will not target them.

On the economic front, on Tuesday, the 3rd, the Policy and Consulting Research Center reported that nearly one million people in the country receive a salary, according to data from July. About 12% of wage earners (more than 100,000 people) make less than 600 lari (around 220 dollars) a month. Around 36% earn 2,400 lari (about 900 dollars) or more, up 4.5% from last year, placing them in the higher-income group. At the top, 3% of earners take home 9,600 lari (about 3,500 dollars) a month.

Still on the economy, on Tuesday, the 2nd, online business outlet bm.ge shared data from the International Monetary Fund, which ranked post-Soviet countries by GDP per capita in twenty twenty-five. Georgia is in seventh place with 9,500 dollars, about three times lower than Estonia, which tops the list with 32,700 dollars. Others ahead of Georgia include Lithuania, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. Georgia is ahead of Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Moldova, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, which sits at the bottom with only 1,400 dollars.

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

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Nakhvamdis!