Nikoloz Tsikaridze: „Tsutskhvati Archaeological Expedition Needs Help! Day 5
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Excavations are being carried out by Ilia State University pic.twitter.com/PCWd1zNwsx— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) September 5, 2025
Day: September 5, 2025
Teona Akubardia, a member of the opposition For Georgia party founded by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, said she is leaving the party days after Gakharia questioned the parliamentary boycott.
Akubardia joined Gakharia’s party ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, after four years of serving as an MP from the opposition Strategy Agmashenebeli party.
She was among twelve For Georgia members whose mandates were terminated during the July 2 parliamentary session over their repeated absence amid an opposition boycott. On September 2, the GD parliament approved the credentials of 12 new members of the For Georgia party to replace the terminated MPs, while Gakharia, currently in exile, told media the party might reconsider the parliamentary boycott, calling it a “mistake.”
“After the unfair and unfree elections, I, like my twelve teammates, refused to grant legitimacy to Ivanishvili’s one-party parliament,” Akubardia wrote on Facebook on September 5, announcing her departure. “It’s not the refusal to enter the parliament that was the main mistake, but the absence of a unified vision around the common goal and mutual confrontation while the country faces a threat of losing sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The politician pledged to continue the “battle” independently and stay in the opposition “against the backdrop of the regime’s reversal of the country’s domestic and foreign course and mass repressions.”
The For Georgia party was one of four opposition groups to clear the 5% threshold in the disputed 2024 parliamentary elections. It joined the opposition’s boycott of the one-party legislature but, unlike the other three alliances, stopped short of formally renouncing its mandates.
The party, along with the Lelo/Strong Georgia alliance, plans to participate in the October 4 municipal vote, against the decision of 9 opposition parties to boycott the vote amid continued repression. Gakharia remains in exile in Germany as he faces two separate probes over his tenure as interior minister in 2019.
Also Read:
- 14/07/2025 – Lelo, Gakharia’s For Georgia Agree to Cooperate for Local Elections
- 04/07/2025 – Gakharia Defends Chorchana Checkpoint to Tsulukiani Commission as GD Revisits its Legacy
- 17/06/2025 – Treason or Opportunity – Opposition Squabbles over Municipal Elections
- 06/06/2025 – Anna Dolidze’s For People Leaves Lelo-Led Strong Georgia Coalition
Georgian authorities detained 30 people and charged two over links with the criminal underworld, so-called “Thieves’ world” in a nationwide crackdown, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on September 5.
Of those detained, 19 are accused of “appealing to a member of the thieves’ world,” seven of “supporting its activities,” and four of direct membership, Tornike Marsagishvili, head of the Ministry’s Anti-Trafficking and Illegal Migration Division, said in a briefing. The suspects allegedly organized so-called thieves’ trials (kurduli garcheva) to settle financial disputes, extorting money under threats of violence.
During searches, police “seized firearms, ammunition, and cash as evidence,” and confiscated mobile phones, which the accused allegedly used to communicate with each other and with Georgian “thieves-in-law” residing abroad. “Thief-in-law” is a title reserved for influential figures in the criminal underworld of the former Soviet space.
Two others, including “thief-in-law” Tengiz Khoperia (alias Chinka) and another individual identified as T.K., were charged in absentia. All detainees face up to 15 years in prison.
The investigation is ongoing under Article 223-1 (parts 1 and 2), Article 223-3 (part 2), and Article 223-4 (part 4) of the Criminal Code, involving membership in the “criminal underworld,” being a “thief-in-law,” supporting its activities, and appealing to a member of the “criminal underworld.”
The crackdown comes as the ruling Georgian Dream party highlights its “uncompromising fight against organized crime,” while concerns persist over the resurgence of criminal subcultures.
In March, Levan Jangveladze, the brother of “thief-in-law” Merab Jangveladze, was shot dead in a contract-style killing in central Tbilisi. In August, authorities arrested four suspects, including businessman Giorgi Mikadze, and charged his brother, Davit Mikadze, in absentia in connection with the case.
A recent report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime warned that thieves-in-law have been regaining influence in Georgia following the post-Rose Revolution crackdown. The study noted that, amid declining legitimacy of the GD government, “thieves-in-law have re-emerged as influential players, valued for their ability to mobilize votes and assist the authorities in managing prison populations.”
Many thieves-in-law and their networks are known to be operating from abroad.
Also Read:
- 22/08/2025 – MIA: Over 1,400 Arrested in Two Months on Drug Charges
- 19/08/2025 – Police Arrest 37 Across Georgia in Three Days Over Firearms, Ammunition
- 23/01/2024 – Police Detain Five People Linked to Criminal Underworld
- 14/11/2023 – Police Detain 18 Individuals Linked to Criminal Underworld Across Georgia
- 03/02/2018 – Georgia to Criminalize Aiding ‘Thieves-in-Law’
- 15/07/2014 – ECHR Says Georgia’s ‘Anti-Thief-in-Law’ Legislation Not in Breach of Convention
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) registered a joint application filed by seven Georgian non-governmental and media organizations against the local version of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and Georgian Dream’s other repressive moves and laws, the applicants said on September 5.
Among the applicants are Georgian NGOs – Transparency International (TI) Georgia, Georgia’s European Orbit, Rule of Law Center, Civic Movement for Freedom, Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC), and the news outlet Publika.
“The application concerns both the repressive legislation and the specific actions initiated based on these laws – namely, the investigation launched by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against some of the applicants,” TI Georgia said in the statement.
A total of eight local civil society organizations were subject to two series of inspections in June and August by Georgia’s Anti-Corruption Bureau under Georgian FARA and three other laws, including the Law on Political Associations, the recently amended Law on Grants, and the Law on Combating Corruption. The joint Strasbourg application also challenges the Law on Grants, as well as provisions of the Law on Political Associations used in the crackdown, TI Georgia told Civil.ge.
“We argue that the government’s goal is not to enforce the law, but to suppress dissent and halt our activities so that we can no longer help people,” TI said. “These laws fundamentally contradict the freedoms of association and expression, the right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, and other rights.”
Adopted in Spring 2025, FARA is the third “foreign agents” law introduced since 2023 and the second to take effect, alongside the still-unenforced Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, also known as the Russian law. Unlike the transparency law, which imposes heavy administrative fines for noncompliance, the Georgian FARA extends to individuals and carries criminal penalties, including fines of up to 10,000 GEL ($3,650), up to five years in prison, or both.
In 2024, the Strasbourg court also registered a similar complaint (GYLA and Others v. Georgia) filed by 16 media outlets, 120 NGOs, and four individuals against the “Transparency” law, which still remains in force. The Venice Commission has sought permission to intervene as a third party in this pending case.
The applications come as Georgian Dream authorities intensify the crackdown on civil society and media through repressive laws and criminal probes. On August 27, 2025, authorities froze the bank accounts of seven civil society groups as part of a “sabotage” investigation, alleging their funds were used to equip protesters who clashed with police during 2024 demonstrations. Two individuals, including Nino Dolidze, the former head of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), and Tamta Mikeladze, director of the Social Justice Center, have already testified before a magistrate judge.
Dozens of local media outlets are also campaigning to raise funds as they struggle to survive amid a series of restrictive legislation barring access to foreign funding.
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Tskhinvali welcomes Georgian Dream report
“Tbilisi has admitted what we and Russia have been waiting 17 years to hear,” Tskhinvali said in response to the findings of Georgian Dream’s commission investigating the actions of the Saakashvili government.
During the report’s presentation in the Georgian parliament, the head of the commission, Tea Tsulukiani, said that in the 2008 war “the Georgian army was dragged into a war by politicians far removed from military affairs who, hoping for outside help and ignoring the advice of Georgian officers, launched an attack on Tskhinvali.”
The opposition, along with many in Georgian society, considers both the commission and the parliament itself illegitimate, arguing that the parliamentary elections of October 2024 were rigged in Georgian Dream’s favour. Six opposition leaders were jailed for refusing to cooperate with the commission.
The state news agency of the self-proclaimed South Ossetia, Res, published an article titled “Georgia officially admits responsibility for launching war against South Ossetia in 2008.” It described the commission’s report as an “official and final document” that confirmed the positions of South Ossetia and Russia.
What did Res write?
“Seventeen years after Georgia’s full-scale military aggression against the Republic of South Ossetia and the Russian Federation in August 2008, an admission has finally been voiced in Tbilisi — one that South Ossetia and Russia have awaited all these years.
At a plenary session of the Georgian parliament, Tea Tsulukiani, chair of the commission investigating crimes of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, presented a 460-page report that leaves no doubt: the aggressive war against the civilian population of South Ossetia was launched by the Georgian leadership of the time, headed by Mikheil Saakashvili.
In any case, this report is an official and final document confirming the correctness of the positions of South Ossetia and Russia. It proves that the peace enforcement operation carried out by the Russian Federation was the only possible response to the treacherous aggression of the Georgian regime, which aimed to forcibly destroy the Republic of South Ossetia and its civilian population.
In this regard, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the Georgian parliamentary commission has turned out to be more honest than western politicians, who for almost 20 years have repeated the mantra about Russia’s and South Ossetia’s supposed guilt in the 2008 war,” the article said.
More about the Georgian Dream investigative commission
The temporary investigative commission set up by Georgian Dream was established on 5 February 2025 to examine the activities of the previous government led by the United National Movement. The commission is chaired by Georgian Dream MP Tea Tsulukiani.
It summoned politicians to hearings and broadcast their questioning live. Those who failed to appear were investigated under article 349 of Georgia’s criminal code — “failure to comply with the demands of a temporary parliamentary investigative commission” — which carries a penalty of a fine or up to one year in prison. Convicted individuals are also barred from holding public office for three years.
Within a month, the Georgian Dream authorities used this article to jail six opposition leaders. The opposition considers both the commission and the parliament itself illegitimate.
Tskhinvali welcomes Georgian Dream report
