On May 1st, 2022, the Facebook page of “Sezoni TV” aired an excerpt from the interview with Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, the chairman of the Union of Human Rights Defenders. Mzhavanadze claimed that Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Moscow on his first visit during the 2008 war and asked Putin for permission to seize Adjara. The post...

On February 24th, a video allegedly depicting a large number of military planes in the Ukrainian sky has become viral on Georgian social media. According to the descriptions, the footage was taken in Ukraine, and the aircrafts belonged to the Russian military. The videos were shared by “Alt-Info” host Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, blogger Beka Vardosanidze and...

On January 24th, the opposition called on the representatives of the incumbent “Georgian Dream” party to take a united stand in support of Ukraine and adopt a resolution. Two days later, on January 26th, the parliamentary majority and the opposition failed to reach an agreement on the resolution draft, as the final version of the...

In parallel with the intensification of the Russian military threat in Ukraine, the pro-Kremlin “Alt-Info”, as well as the supporters of the Alt-Info-affiliated “Conservative Movement” party, started to pursue a campaign to discredit the Ukrainian army. On January 28th, “Myth Detector” fact-checked a video shared by a Georgian Facebook user, which depicted a young gay...

On December 25th, the Georgian government revealed its plans to abolish the State Inspector’s Office and create two new supplementary agencies. The State Inspector herself responded to the information, noting that she had found out about the “conspiratorially” initiated change regarding the abolition of her service from the media. She further noted that the change cannot be perceived as a reform...

After the deterioration of the health of the imprisoned third president of Georgia, the Ombudsman and her group of experts assessed the health condition of Saakashvili as critical. They recommended his treatment in the intensive care unit of the multi-unit hospital. The statements voiced by the Ombudsman resulted in the emergence of anti-opposition pages and government trolls,...

The 21-27 June issue of the newspaper “Asaval-dasavali” published a comment from the “Rights Defenders’ Union” chairperson Nikoloz Mzhavanadze noting that Guram Kashia, within the “Equality Program”, goes from village to village in Guria and talks about gay couples to children.   Nikoloz Mzhvanadze, Rights Defenders’ Union: “When renowned Serbian football player Mateja Kezman has...

Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria became the target of pro-Kremlin and antiliberal groups after Bishop Spiridon (Abuladze) of Skhalta refused to permit the Public Defender’s monitoring visit to the Orthodox Church-run Ninotsminda orphanage. Myth Detector has identified the actors involved in the campaign of discrediting the Public Defender on social and traditional media. In particular:...

Massive violence erupted between locals in the southern town of Dmanisi of Kvemo Kartli region on May 17 following a shop incident that took place a day earlier. The Interior Ministry, riot police and government officials had to intervene to defuse the tensions. The confrontation between Georgian citizens – local ethnic Georgian and Azerbaijani population –...

On July 30, Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, head of the Union of Human Rights Defenders, posted a photo on his Facebook page, claiming that it depicts the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and his spouse. As of March 9, 2021, the photo has 698 reactions and over 3,000 shares. The photo spread on social media depicts Austrian singer,...

Update: After the publication of the material, Shota Apkhaidze addressed the Myth Detector, stating that he had never been the editor of NewsFront, despite the fact that he was mentioned as the editor of this publication in February 2020. Apkhaidze also denies his current association with the Eurasian Institute, saying he only worked for the...

On 28 January, speaking in a talk show “Reaction” on TV Pirveli, Iveri Melashvili discussed, among other things, the process of defining a disputed section of the border. Various media outlets and political actors took only a fragment of the talk show and shared it extensively. The mentioned fragment contained few sentences, including the words...