The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia declared the Georgian political party undesirable.
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation declared the activities of the Georgian political party "Droa," led by Elene Khoshtaria, undesirable. This is the first case in history where a Russian supervisory authority applies such a status to an officially registered party in Georgia.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", at the end of October, the leader of the opposition Georgian party "Droa," Elene Khoshtaria, who was convicted for damaging the election poster of the mayor of Tbilisi, was transferred from a prison in Rustavi to a capital clinic for examination.
According to the statement from the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia, the members of "Droa" allegedly hold "strongly expressed anti-Russian positions," oppose the normalization of relations with the Russian Federation, demand the cancellation of direct air communication and the introduction of a visa regime, reports "Kommersant" citing the supervisory authority.
The prosecutor's office also accused the party of aiming to discredit Russia's actions in the Georgian direction and of accusing Russia of occupying Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The party demands the introduction of a visa regime for Russians and the cessation of direct air communication between the two countries.
"The organization actively supports the Ukrainian regime, calls for establishing closer cooperation between Georgia and Ukraine, and for including the country in the Carpathian Eight," the Russian agency's statement said.
Georgia considers Abkhazia and South Ossetia to be territories occupied by Russia after Russia intervened in the armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia on August 8, 2008, and subsequently recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Parliament of Georgia voted to sever diplomatic relations with Russia, as indicated in the "Caucasian Knot" report on the "Five-Day War" of 2008.
A representative of the ruling party, Gia Volski, believes that Russia's declaration of "Droa" as an undesirable organization is a provocation. According to the deputy, this measure does not mean that anything will "change in the party's behavior." Volski also returned to the topic of Russian financing of the Khoshtaria family and stated that Russia has one set of claims, while the ruling party has another.
The founder and leader of the "Droa" party, 46-year-old Elene Khoshtaria, is one of the most prominent figures in the Georgian opposition. Khoshtaria received her education at MGIMO in the field of "international law," but after returning to Georgia, she became a consistent critic of Russian policy in the region. She was one of the main organizers of large-scale spontaneous protests in Tbilisi in June 2019, known as "Gavrilov's Night," which erupted after Russian State Duma deputy Sergey Gavrilov occupied the speaker's chair of the Georgian parliament.
Currently, Elene Khoshtaria is serving a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence. The reason for the sentence was an incident involving an election banner of Tbilisi Mayor Kakhaber Kaladze, on which she wrote with a marker "Russian Dream."
"Caucasian Knot" also reported that the European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of the constitutional claim by the ruling "Georgian Dream" to ban five opposition forces in the country. MEPs also called for the release of political prisoners and the introduction of targeted sanctions against the leadership of the ruling party.