Georgia's information space: London sanctions pro-Kremlin voices as a German foundation leaves

Three decisions taken within 48 hours show how contested Georgia's information space has become. On 1 October the United Kingdom sanctioned four Georgian nationals it accuses of spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation, together with the current and former de facto leaders of South Ossetia. The same day Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) announced that it had closed its Tbilisi office, blaming Georgia's restrictions on foreign grants. And Georgia's broadcast regulator fined the opposition-leaning Formula TV for the way its journalists referred to the ruling party. Each step was taken under the rules of the government concerned. Together they describe a country where foreign political influence is being contested from both sides.

The UK designations

The British package covers 23 individuals and entities and eight ships, Civil Georgia reports. The Foreign Office said it included "seven individuals – including four Georgian nationals – involved in spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation, from legitimising Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory to serving in Russian-installed authorities in occupied South Ossetia". The Georgia-linked designations are:

• Mamuka Pipia, leader and international secretary of the Solidarity for Peace party, which campaigns for restoring diplomatic relations with Russia.
• Giorgi Iremadze, a pro-Russian commentator and member of the party's political council.
• Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, founder of the Russian-language Sezoni TV channel, who JAMnews says lives in Russia.
• Paata Abuladze, described in the notice as a political and military observer, and reportedly a relative of Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze.
• Marat Kambolov, recently installed as South Ossetia's de facto leader, and his predecessor Alan Gagloev.

The four Georgian nationals were part of a group that met Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-installed authorities in occupied Donetsk, last year; the sanctions notice says Pipia led the delegation and publicised the visit. The UK also listed Sergei Tolmachev; Civil Georgia, citing the British embassy, describes him as a regional "deputy governor" in occupied Sevastopol and Zaporizhzhia, while JAMnews cites media reports that he helped run the campaign of Abkhazia's de facto leader, Badra Gunba. All those designated face asset freezes, travel bans and trust services and director disqualification sanctions.

The embassy linked the package to Georgia's own territorial dispute. It condemned Russia's "attempts to consolidate its unlawful control over Georgia's occupied regions", including the so-called presidential election held in Tskhinvali on 18 September. This is not London's first Georgia-related step: in February it sanctioned the pro-government broadcasters Imedi TV and PosTV over what it called Russian disinformation. Imedi's audited 2025 accounts, approved on 25 September, show an operating loss of GEL 43.1m and accumulated losses of GEL 497.2m, and its auditor wrote of "significant doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern, Georgia Today reports.

A German foundation leaves

KAS, which is affiliated with Germany's Christian Democratic Union, said it closed its office on 30 September after more than two decades in Georgia. Its statement said the closure was "a direct consequence of the political and legal framework created by the Georgian government". According to KAS, the authorities rejected its funding applications under the amended Law on Grants on 28 July, and approval "appeared possible only if they no longer corresponded to the foundation's political character and mandate". Efforts by the German government to keep it open failed. KAS will keep its legal registration so that it can return "should the political conditions change".

The legal basis is a sequence of amendments. In 2025 the Law on Grants made government approval mandatory for foreign donors to disburse grants locally; March 2026 amendments extended this to foreign organisations funding their own local branches. Civil Georgia reports that failure to seek consent for certain foreign grants is punishable by up to six years in prison, and failure to register under Georgia's version of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by up to five. Nona Kurdovanidze, former head of the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, argued that refusing consent in such cases "in effect, amounts to the organization being expelled from the country".

The parliamentary speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, gave the government's view. He said the government had proposed that KAS drop political projects and that the foundation was not interested in non-political work. "Foreign parties and foundations have no political mission to carry out in Georgia," he said, asking whether Germany would let Georgian Dream carry out a political mission in Berlin, APA reports. He said Georgians had lost trust in donor organisations because foreign funding was being used for "a radical political agenda".

Enforcement widens at home

The KAS closure follows other moves in September. On 21 September the State Audit Office, which took over enforcement of the foreign-funding laws after the Anti-Corruption Bureau was dismantled, began examining whether the Tbilisi School of Political Studies had received a grant without government consent; Papuashvili had suggested that the Council of Europe paid directly for a seminar to avoid the law. On 17 September Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the State Grant Management Agency, set up in 2025 to fund civil society from the budget, would close by the end of the year, calling NGOs "an artificial phenomenon" invented for foreign political intervention.

The broadcast regulator is applying parallel rules to media. On 1 October the Communications Commission fined Formula TV GEL 10,000, citing "personal views" and impartiality violations in news programmes on 14–16 September. According to the monitoring platform MediaChecker, the case concerned phrases such as "Georgian Dream prime minister" and "Georgian Dream president". It is the channel's fourth sanction under the 2025 amendments; the regulator has also warned or fined pro-government channels, including Rustavi 2 and PosTV.

What to watch

The two processes are not symmetrical. The UK is targeting a small number of named individuals under its Russia sanctions regime; the Georgian government is applying general rules to all foreign-funded political and civic work. But they point the same way. Western-funded political programming in Georgia is shrinking, and Georgian pro-Russian figures now face Western sanctions. The next tests are whether other German political foundations follow KAS, whether the Audit Office case against the Tbilisi School of Political Studies results in penalties, and whether the EU follows the UK with designations of its own.

Sources

• Civil Georgia — UK Sanctions Tskhinvali's Current, Former De Facto Leaders, Georgian Pro-Russian Figures in Russia Measures
• JAMnews — Four Georgian citizens and people linked to country's occupied regions hit by UK sanctions
• Georgia Today — UK-sanctioned Imedi TV's accumulated losses reach nearly GEL 500 million
• Civil Georgia — Konrad Adenauer Foundation Closes Tbilisi Office Citing Georgia's Funding Restrictions
• APA — Papuashvili: Foreign foundations cannot carry out political mission in Georgia
• Civil Georgia — Audit Office Studies Popular Seminar Project After GD Suspects CoE Funding In Breach of Grants Law
• Civil Georgia — Kobakhidze Expects State Grant Agency, Created Amid NGO Crackdown, to Shut Down Soon
• Civil Georgia — Formula TV Fined GEL 10,000 Over Alleged Violations of Content Regulation Laws