GEORGIA: Reviving Conspiracy Theories & more – 24th July 2025

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 24th of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Saturday, the 19th, the European Parliament published a critical statement about Georgia. They said the country couldn’t join the EU until it held fair elections and dropped its authoritarian path. It also said that the current government was not legitimate.

Parliament adopted a report prepared by MEP Rasa Juknevičienė, which says things in Georgia have gotten much worse since the EU Commission’s twenty twenty-four report. The EU criticized the Georgian Dream or the Kotsebi for rigged elections, cracking down on civil society, and pushing repressive laws.

They labeled jailed opposition leaders as political prisoners and said upcoming municipal elections won’t reflect the people’s will. They also urged Hungary and Slovakia to stop blocking sanctions against Georgia.

In related news, in response to growing criticism from the EU over the past few weeks, the Kotsebi is once again reviving its conspiracy theory that Western powers have been trying to push Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war since twenty twenty-two, and that all tensions with the EU started because the ruling party refused to open a second front against Russia.

On Friday, the 18th, Prime Minister Kobakhidze told reporters that a Western official personally asked Georgia to join the war. He refused to name the person, saying only that the meetings happened in February of twenty twenty-two, before and after Russia invaded Ukraine. He said pressure, including financial threats against Bidzina Ivanishvili, the ruling party’s founder and richest man in Georgia, began when the Georgian side refused to cooperate.

Despite these allegations, the Kotsebi hasn’t delivered a single evidence to support its statements.

Just a day before, Kobakhidze said his party would ask the Constitutional Court to ban the Coalition Strong Georgia or Lelo-Dzlieri and Gakharia’s For Georgia or Sakartvelostvis even though both plan to run in the municipal elections, which the Kotsebi is officially in favor of.

He said all four major opposition parties are a single political force tied to the United National Movement or the Natsebi and foreign interests, and running in elections changes nothing.

Back in May, Parliament passed a law allowing the court to ban parties whose goals include overthrowing or violently changing the constitutional order, undermining the country’s independence, violating its territorial integrity, promoting war or violence, inciting national, regional, religious, or social hatred, or creating (or having created) an armed formation. The Kotsebi is accusing the Natsebi of most of these, and since they say the other three major opposition parties collude with the Natsebi, all of them should be banned.

A deadly shooting in a restaurant located in Batumi, western Georgia, left one Turkish citizen dead and another injured on Friday, the 18th. Prosecutors say that two attackers, who are also Turkish, crossed the Georgian border illegally that same day, and one of them opened fire on two fellow Turkish nationals inside the restaurant. After the attack, the shooter and his companion fled the scene.

Police arrested both suspects shortly after. While authorities haven’t revealed the reason behind the shooting, police say the conflict between the parties started back in Turkey.

Still in Batumi, the Georgian Revenue Service froze the bank accounts of Batumelebi, an independent media outlet known for its long history of publishing critical reports about the current government and its predecessors. It stands as one of the few strong voices of critical journalism outside the capital.

The tax office demanded Batumelebi pay over 280,000 lari, which is more than 100,000 dollars, within five days or face account seizures and property auctions, including their office equipment. This amount includes unpaid taxes, fines, and penalties. Even though Batumelebi has been making monthly payments, the tax service rejected their request for a payment plan.

Batumelebi sees this as an attack on critical voices, pointing out that pro-government outlets like IMEDI TV officially owe the state 17 million Laris, more than 6 million dollars, but haven’t received a similar treatment.

Speaking of Batumelebi, there’s an update to the case of its founder, Mzia Amaghlobeli, who was arrested in January for slapping Batumi’s chief of police. During a court hearing on Monday, 21st, prosecutors said they were open to discussing a plea deal if the defense initiated it. Mzia’s lawyer said her client won’t seek a plea deal because that would involve acknowledging guilt, which Amaghlobeli refused to do.

Mzia faces up to seven years in prison for slapping Batumi’s police chief. She says she did it in response to inhuman treatment while in custody for an administrative offense, including being spat on by a policeman.

International watchdogs, the European Parliament, the Clooney Foundation, and journalist groups have condemned the case as politically motivated and an attack on press freedom, and demanded her release.

Batumelebi’s bank account was not the only one that got frozen this week. Elene Khoshtaria, the only leader of Coalition for Change or Tsvlilebebistvis who is not imprisoned and the head of the Droa party, says the authorities froze both her personal and party bank accounts over unpaid fines. She has personally been fined several times during pro-European protests.

Koshtaria mocked the ruling party on social media, saying that the account only had seventeen Lari on it, around six dollars, and she managed to move party donations to a safe space beforehand.

Gogi Kobulia, who served as Minister of Economy between twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen, criticized the Kotsebi’s political shift in the Business Talk Show Tsertili. He said the party deepened ties with Russia for economic stability, which paid off, but made a serious mistake by aggressively pushing anti-European laws and rhetoric. According to Kobulia, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kotsebi feared that fully aligning with the EU, including sanctioning Russia, would damage the economy, especially Russian tourism and trade.

He believes the ruling party made a strategic choice to secure conservative voters by abandoning the European path, even if that meant losing pro-EU voters. Kobulia said the Kotsebi won’t repeal the controversial laws but urged them to meet at least some of the EU’s recommendations to preserve visa-free travel.

On Thursday, the 17th, Security officials in Georgia arrested one local and one foreign citizen in Batumi for trying to buy and sell uranium illegally. The price of the radioactive material was three million dollars. Authorities say this type of uranium, based on its radioactive properties, could be used to build explosive devices and carry out terrorist attacks with deadly consequences.

Continuing with crime, on Friday, the 18th, the Finance Ministry’s Investigative Service arrested twelve members of an organized group for scamming the state out of over 800,000 Lari, almost 300,000 Dollars.

A former employee of the Rural Development Agency led the scheme by bringing in people with zero ties to farming. They applied for agricultural equipment grants through a state co-financing program. Several fake companies backed them with forged invoices to make the entire operation look real. The group pulled this off eight times and used the money for personal gain instead of farming.

Authorities are still digging into the case and expect the total damage and number of suspects to rise.

In business news, on Wednesday, the 23rd, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (or IMF) approved its updated assessment of Georgia. They expect a strong growth in the money supply or, as the neoliberals metaphorically call it, "economic growth" this year, projecting an over 7% rise in GDP. Since twenty twenty-one, Georgia has averaged over 9% annual growth, thanks to post-COVID recovery, logistics, migration, and transit trade linked to the war in Ukraine. Inflation remains stable, and public debt dropped to 36% in twenty twenty-four.

The IMF also points to political uncertainty and possible sanctions that could hit tourism, investment, and the Lari. They urge reforms to strengthen the National Bank’s independence, overhaul its leadership structure, and improve governance.

Finally, on Wednesday, the 23rd, Justin Timberlake performed a massive show in Tbilisi as part of the government-funded Starring Georgia program, which aims to boost tourism by sponsoring concerts from world-famous artists, including Guns N' Roses.

Tinatin Rukhadze, the Minister of Culture, said over 20,000 foreign tourists went to Georgia specifically for the Timberlake concert, held at Dinamo Arena. In total, around 55,000 people attended the event and nearly 2,000 locals were employed by the program.

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

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Nakhvamdis!