Monday Cable – December 15, 2025
Good Monday morning, dear readers, as we come back from a busy week to slide into what looks like an even busier week of parliamentary wrap-up and EU politics. Here’s what you need to know:
Past Week
The past week’s key developments included Georgian Dream rushing amendments to extend protest bans to sidewalks and also to radically reform (or, as critics call it, deform) the higher education system; Georgia and the UNDP signing a cooperation deal; reports of a nearly-completed transit hub in Abkhazia, from which Tbilisi distanced itself; concerns over plans of authorities to create a centralized mental health database; victims of Gavrilov’s Night dispersal winning the case – and solid compensation – in ECtHR Grand Chamber; revealed plans to move key government institutions to a “government town” on a Tbilisi hill; and GD Prime Minister’s controversial appearance alongside Vladimir Putin during an international forum Turkmenistan.
Weekend News
Abkhaz Mobilization Worries: De facto officials in occupied Abkhazia have been meeting and making statements regarding “issues related to emerging cases of military registration in the Russian Federation of citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia who also have Russian citizenship.” According to reports from Sokhumi, the issue particularly concerns Abkhaz students in Russia. The de facto officials, apparently responding to worries in social media, claim they are trying to “find ways to resolve this issue, namely by creating legal mechanisms whereby citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia would not be required to register for military service in the Russian Federation, as they are part of the mobilization reserve of the Republic of Abkhazia and must be registered for military service in the Republic of Abkhazia.”
Parallel Battlefields: This weekend, public attention focused on the election of the Head of the Georgian Bar Association, a public body uniting Georgian lawyers and authorized to issue professional defense lawyer licenses. Two leading contenders included Giorgi Chomakhashvili, known for his active role in defending detained protesters, and Irakli Kandashvili, widely perceived as a candidate backed by the ruling party and the association’s establishment. Kandashvili secured 1,283 votes, while Chomakhashvili received 1,109, sending the closely contested race into a runoff.
Another Russian Ruling: A Russian court sentenced Georgian fighter Giorgi Partsvania to 28 years in absentia for fighting on the Ukrainian side, including his participation in the attack on the Russian region of Belgorod.
Discourses
WeKillBats: Russian media have once again been gripped by conspiracy claims that Georgia has been developing bioweapons at the Lugar Laboratory, including by catching bats before COVID times. This renewed wave draws on what outlets describe as a Russian version of WikiLeaks – a project dubbed “WikiLeaks 2.0,” launched in November. According to these reports, the project has so far published materials it claims originate from Georgian health authorities and the Lugar Laboratory – key research facility in Tbilisi created in with U.S. funding – and plan to publish more, with the leaks allegedly comprising around 70,000 documents dating from 2020 to 2022 “including materials on the activities of the Georgian Ministry of Health, as well as on cooperation between Georgia, the US, and other American biological laboratories in the post-Soviet space.” We will be watching to find out the reasons behind the renewed interest.
Neutrality and Dialogue: Responding to Trump’s new National Security Strategy, United Neutral Georgia, a Georgian Dream-aligned group recently emerging as a political party, called Georgia’s constitutional provision about EU and NATO integration “externally-imposed” and “absurd”, arguing Georgia needs to develop its own security strategy with a focus on – surprise! – neutrality. “First of all, we need to face the new reality, bring the country out of Euroillusion, and work towards receiving a neutral status,” the group said in one of its sponsored Facebook posts. There has been a parallel cry for “dialogue” among pro-ruling-party voices, in apparent response to the backlash Irakli Kobakhidze’s appearance alongside Putin has caused. “Had the jews not talked with the Germans, they wouldn’t have had such progress,” GD propagandist Lali Moroshkina wrote on Facebook on December 12. “Even the French and English reached a truce… There’s no time to lose.”
Long-Read:
Georgia’s “300 Lari” public employment program for socially vulnerable citizens is quietly reaching its end. But the program was never a serious route out of poverty: it looked more like a political instrument to keep tens of thousands of vulnerable people formally attached to the state. Read our recent article here about what became of the policy launched by Garibashvili in 2022, with the stated goal to “accustom” Georgians to work.
What to expect
Parliament: The fall session of the disputed parliament will adjourn on December 19 with a bureau session. Speaker Shalva Papuashvili earlier announced extraordinary plenary sessions for December 16-17, but they haven’t been confirmed yet.
EU Parliament: MEPs will be debating “the deepening democratic crisis in Georgia” on December 17.
EU Commission’s Visa Suspension Report is expected to come out in December, most likely this week.
Opposition Leader Zura Girchi Japaridze will be leaving prison on December 19, having served seven months for boycotting the Parliament’s “Tsulukiani commission”. He faces trial on additional criminal “sabotage” charges, though without pre-trial detention.
From Civil.ge’s Archives
OTD in 2021, Civil.ge reported: “A German court found today Russian citizen Vadim Krasikov, 56, guilty of murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili and sentenced him to life in prison. … The court also said the Russian government ordered the murder of Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent, who was labeled as a terrorist by Moscow.” Later, in 2024, Krasikov was included in a high-profile prisoner swap between the U.S., Germany, and Russia, and personally welcomed home by Vladimir Putin.
Visual Politics
