The Organizer Of The "Immortal Regiment" In Georgia Was Detained For Espionage

He faces twelve years in prison.

Georgia's State Security Service has detained Gulbaat Rtskhiladze, head of the non-governmental organization Eurasia Institute and founder of the Immortal Troops movement (the local equivalent of Russia's Immortal Regiment), writes The Moscow Times.

He has been charged with espionage, Georgia's First Channel reported. The criminal case threatens Rtskhiladze with imprisonment for up to twelve years. According to the investigation, for many years Rtskhiladze extracted and passed intelligence information to foreign intelligence services. For cover, he created information platforms and organized mass events throughout the country, presumably the actions of the "Immortal Troops". He transmitted data to representatives of intelligence services of two states (which ones, the SGB did not specify) - he personally met with them in Georgia and abroad, as well as sent information in electronic form. All this, according to the security services, was done for material gain and in the interests of an unnamed foreign state.

Rtskhiladze is known as one of the main promoters of the pro-Russian agenda in Georgia. The Eurasia Institute, which he heads, recently established a council to monitor "Russophobia," and the detainee himself has justified Russia's invasion of Ukraine and blamed Vladimir Zelensky for Russia's war. The organizations "Immortal Regiment of Georgia", "People's Movement for Georgian-Russian Dialogue and Cooperation" and "Caucasian Cooperation" were also registered in his name. In 2025 iFact found out that Rtskhiladze received funding from the Russian "Fund for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad".

The lawyer of the detained Lasha Golubiani said that his client links his arrest specifically to his pro-Russian activities. "This man created the council to reveal and publicize facts of Russophobia. I do not know whose interests do not include making these facts public, but he himself connects this with his arrest," the lawyer said.

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