The political party - "conservative party" established by alt-info, is affiliated with the government of Georgia as well as the government of Russia. GMC has researched the finances and governmental connections of those radical groupings.
Alt-info is an anti-west, pro-russian political media platform in Georgia, which is infamous for its violent demonstrations and hate speech. Alt-info was one of the organizers of violent and brutal demonstrations organized on July 5 2021, as a result of which, tens of Georgian journalists were beaten and one of them, Lekso Lashkarava, eventually died.
Alt-info, as a media platform, was officially launched on January 28 2019 by Shota Martinenko and Tsiala Morgoshia. In order to increase the scale of its operations, it actively uses Facebook and other social media channels.
On December 7, 2021, Alt-infor founded the political party - “Conservative Movement”. The chairman of the party is Zurab Makharadze, while the secretary general is - Giorgi Kardava. As per the statement of the chairman, the purpose of the party is to replace the “liberal democracy” by “Christian Democracy”. However, instead of democratic values, the party actively promotes the violence, intolerance and closer political connections with Russia.
It is worth mentioning that recently members of alt-info and conservative movement stated that they are planning to visit Moscow to negotiate with their partners there. This fact is not surprising as in the research process, we also researched the web-page of the party. It turned out that the hosting of the webpage is located in Russia. This fact further supports the assumption that Conservative Party is closely affiliated with Russia.
The activities of the Concervative Movement
The Conservative Movement is opening offices across Georgia.
The squander detector investigated some of the regional offices of conservative movement and identified significant issues.
An Indirect link between the movement and the Georgian Dream was revealed in Ozurgeti, a capital of the Guria region in Georgia. As locals stated, conservative movement was able to rent the property in the city center with the help of Ilia Ketchakmadze, who is the member of Kakha Kaladze’s close circle and chairs Kala Kapital LLC, a company owned by Kakha Kaladze. But in response to the protests of locals, other owners of the property requested to terminate the lease agreement and hence, the Conservative Movement soon had to find another space.
In cities where the Conservative Party was frequently rejected by the landlords to lease the space for rent, in some cases, the leaders of the local municipality organs and close affiliates of Georgian Dream helped them in finding the space for rent to open the office.
For instance: in Tskaltubo, the rental space for the office was leased to the party by Rezo Mkheidze, the son of the Member of the local city council from Georgian Dream- Avtandil Mkheidze . The co-owner of the same rental space is a citizen of Russia.
Avtandil Mkheidze became a member of the City Council in October 2, 2021 elections. He won the first round in Tskaltubo #2 majoritarian constituency with 51% support.
We observed the following trends regarding the chairpersons of the Party’s regional office.
In several cases, the head of the regional branch of Conservative Party was in parallel working for the local not-for-profit entity owned/managed by the local municipality.
In Chkhorotsku, Emzar Mikava, one of the heads of the regional office of the Conservative Movement, has been employed at Chkhorotsku City Hall for four years now. He occupies the position of Security Specialist in “Mechanization, Cleaning, Improvement and Cemetery Maintenance Center of Chkhorotsku Municipality.” According to the locals, another representative of Alt-Info Chkhorotsku’s office, Manuchar Shengelia, is also employed at the Chkhorotsku Fire Department.
We identified a similar pattern in Khoni regional office. Gia Managadze, the head of the Khoni regional office of the Conservative Movement, is at the same time employed at the local not-for-profit entity of Khoni Utility Service Center. This fact was confirmed by the head of the same entity, Akaki Gopodze.
Soso Sulava, another employee of the Khoni office, has also been working at the Khoni Art School of the Khoni Municipality for years.
It should be noted that the Georgian legislation does not forbid the political activities of the employed of not-for-profit entities established by City Hall. However, it raises a question whether it is justified or not that the leaders of the pro-Russian party are employed by the state organs.
Who finances the Conservative Movement?
As of today, the Conservative Movement has opened up to 61 regional offices (they plan to open 82 offices at the end of march 2022). According to some sources, the monthly cost of the rent is around GEL 1500 on average per office.
We obtained this information from Davit Solomonidze, who initially agreed to rent the office to conservative movement in Khulo. He stated that party members promised him to pay Gel 1500 per month and also stated to employ two locals with a GEL 500 per month salary.
If we make a rough calculation, conservative movement has to spend over 105,000 lari per month for rent, which in itself is a sizable amount of money. This sum will be further increased since the payments for the regular staff of the offices shall be added.
According to recent data, conservative movement has received a donation of GEL 93,035. We have also researched the list of people who have made donations to conservative movement party. The highest donation given to the party was GEL 8000. In two months, 96 people donated money to political party. It is clear that conservative movement could not afford all the spending depending only on political donations.
Another important piece of information was identified during the research, regarding the finances of the Conservative Movement. As claimed by its representatives, Konstantine Morgoshia is a major donor for the operations of the movement.
However, it is unclear where this money comes from. None of the companies related to Konstantine morgoshia has ever published its financial statements. It either means that the yearly turnover of these companies is less than 2 million GEL (which does not oblige companies to publish the financial statements) or these companies have a turnover of more than 2 million GEL but they refuse to publish financial statements in violation of the law.
It remains very interesting to know how Mr. Morgoshia is able to finance the operations of the political party and the opening of 82 branches in various places in Georgia while his companies generate less revenue than 2 mln GEL per year.
Konstantine Morgoshia - the sponsor with no money
A significant part of the research was dedicated to Konstantine Morgoshia who is seen as one of the major leaders and financiers of the prominent far-right group in Georgia, alt-info and its affiliated political party the Conservative Movement .
As found out, Mr. Morgoshia was arrested for the illegal appropriation of state property and fraud during the previous government. Mamuka Mdinaradze, currently serving as the leader of the Georgian Dream party, acted as an attorney for Mr. Morgoshia.
Mr. Morgoshia conflicted with the law yet another time during the rule of the Georgian Dream government. As per the current legislation, political parties are allowed to accept donations from the citizens up to 60 000 GEL maximum per year. In violation of this law Mr. Morgoshia donated 91 600 GEL to the political party - Alliance of Patriots in 2026. Consequently, the court imposed a sanction on Mr. Morgoshia in the form of a financial penalty of GEL 180 000, which he refused to pay. As a result, since 2017 he is enlisted in the debtors registry.
Due to the court order, the National Bureau Enforcement of Georgia (the authority with the power to enforce court decisions) could freeze and sell his assets to ensure the involuntary payment of the fine. However, Mr. Morgoshia managed to escape such an action by transferring all of the assets in the name of his relatives. The current Georgian legislation is unfortunately not very effective against such actions, having loopholes that could be manipulated.
As confirmed by the documents and records obtained from the public registry of Georgia, he has transferred all his assets to his family members, who have issued the Power of Attorney to Mr. Morgoshia and enabled him to sign and execute real estate deals and other important business transactions. As a result, he acts on behalf of Tsiala Morgoshia (his aunt) and Giorgi Morgoshia (his brother) and participates in significant transactions, founds the companies, acts as a shareholder, buys or sells the real estate, etc.
Possible Connection with Kakha Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi
Mr. Morgoshia is also mentioned in the secret phone recordings, allegedly leaked from the State Security Service and published by the media on September 13, 2021. In the alleged phone call, which was held between Sandro Bregadze (one of the leaders of another far-right group - Georgian March) and Dimitry Lortkipanidze (the head of primakov center in Georgia - yet another pro-russian civic organization), Mr. Bregadze mentions that Kakha Kaladze, a mayor of Tbilisi has financially supported their demonstrations and activities by giving. Mr. Morgoshia USD 300 000. In addition, Sandro Bregadze states that Mr. Kaladze has issued two construction permits to Morgoshia, in violation of the law. Furthermore, the conversation also mentions that Giorgi Morgoshia, Konstantine’s brother, participates in several transactions related to the Tbilisi City hall.
During our investigation we were able to find links between the family member (brother) of Konstantne Morgoshia and the Tbilisi city hall.
According to documents we received from the public registry, the brother of Konstantine Morgoshia, Giorgi Morgoshia, has signed the service agreement with Demax Vake (one of the developer companies in Tbilisi). As per the service agreement, Giorgi Morgoshia undertook the obligation to assist Demax Vake in obtaining the construction permit from Tbilisi City Hall, as per the agreed terms of the permit which were determined in the agreement. In exchange, Demax Vake agreed to reimburse Giorgi Morgoshia’s services in the form of transferring the ownership to Giorgi Morgoshia over 800 sq.m. residential spaces in the real estate project. Additionally, Demax Vake also undertook to pay USD 110 000 to Giorgi Morgoshia. As per the agreement, Giorgi Morgoshia had a 3 months deadline to ensure the obtaining of the construction permit (which, in general, is considered as a very small time period for obtaining the permit). The service agreement was executed in October 2018, while Demax Vake obtained the construction permit on March 7 2019.
Even though Giorgi Morgoshia had undertaken the obligation to obtain the construction permit for Demax Vake, Giorgi Morgoshia’s name/surname is nowhere mentioned or recorded in the papers/archives related to the permit issued by Tbilisi Architecture Service.
After obtaining the construction permit, Demax Vake performed its duties and transferred 800 sq.m. residential real estate to Giorgi Morgoshia.
Demax Vake is an elite residential complex in Tbilisi and average price of 1sq.m. of real estate there varies between 1700-2000 USD. Therefore, the value received by Giorgi Morgoshia for its services is around USD 1 360 000 – 1 600 000 in real estate, plus USD 110 000 in cash.
The real estate space of 800 sq.m. which Giorgi Morgoshia received for its services, was later on transferred to 7 different individuals in various spaces, based on Giorgi’s consent. One of the persons who received the real estate from Giorgi Morgoshia was Gia Korkotashvili – one of the prominent leaders of Georgian March (another radical far-right grouping) and his aunt Tsiala Morgoshia, who received four flats at the Demax Vake.
Demax Vake case closely resembled yet one another shady case – construction project with the involvement of Tbilisi City Hall and Giorgi Morgoshia.
Looking into public documents, we have found out that the partnership “I.M.A” owned the land plot on Kvernadze street in Tbilisi to build a residential building of 27 floors. “I.M.A.” was not able to finish the construction and applied to the Tbilisi City Hall with the request to provide support, though no justification was made for no compliance. The partnership was offered to the Tbilisi City Hall to transfer the ownership of the land plot of 1265 sq.m. next to the existing building which was in the process of construction. Additionally, the partnership agreed to decrease the maximum number of floors of the existing building (being in the process of construction) from 27 to 13. In exchange, the partnership requested the transfer of the land plot owned by the Tbilisi City Hall in another area of the city. The city hall agreed to these terms and therefore, the City hall has transferred the land plot to the partnership with the value of more than 3 mln GEL in exchange for the land plot with the value of around 1 mln GEL (1265 sq.m.).
The partnership started the construction of residential buildings on the new land plot received from the city hall, where Giorgi Morgoshia (Konstantine’s brother) has purchased an apartment of 400 sq.m. The purchase price is not indicated in the agreement. Instead, it mentions that in exchange for a 400 sq.m. apartment, Giorgi Morgoshia provided services to the partnership. However, it is not indicated what kind of service was provided, which leaves many questions unanswered. Considering the average prices, the estimated value of the real estate is around USD 400 000.
Two cases that are mentioned above coincides with the secret phone recordings, allegedly leaked from the State Security Service. We cannot argue whether facts in leaked documents are real or not, but it surely raises some questions.
Conclusion
The cases discussed above and the information leaked from the State Security Service of Georgia about the allegedly illegal construction permits issued by the Tbilisi City Hall, constitute sufficient ground for assuming that the pro-Russian violent groupings and the political party established by them are indirectly supported by the ruling party. Squanded Detector continues working on identifying other affiliations of these groups with the ruling party.