On October 2nd, 2021, Georgia held the local self-government elections, while on October 30th, the second round of mayoral elections was held in 5 self-governing cities and 15 municipalities. “Myth Detector” identified the following types of election-related violations during the pre-election period from July 31st to November 3rd: Disinformation and other manipulative content Disinformation and Positioning...

On November 5th, pro-governmental expert Edisher Gvenetadze published a post on his Facebook page claiming that Mikheil Saakashvili underwent gastrectomy in the Netherlands on September 23rd. Hence he is now receiving as much food (porridge) as prescribed by his doctor. Based on Gvenetadze’s post, the same information was also published by “Imedinews.ge,” sharing it on both...

On November 4th, the online editions Itar.ge, Infopostalioni.ge, Akhalitaoba.ge and Wnews published information about the Georgian emigrant Diana Bagrationi allegedly becoming the vice mayor of New York City. The disseminated information about Diana Bagrationi becoming the vice mayor of New York is false. In fact, Diana Bagrationi herself denied the claims. The shared images were posted by Bagrationi herself on her...

On October 26th, 2021, Irakli Martinenko, the host at “Alt-Info,” said that systematically unacceptable forms of punishment, such as rape and similar methods, were not employed under Joseph Stalin’s rule. Irakli Martinenko: „[In Stalin’s time] there was no such thing as a systematic use of unacceptable forms of punishment. Namely, crimes were not punished by drastic measures such...

On November 3rd, the Facebook page “Resident”posted a screenshot with the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) logo, which features a photo and an alleged quote of Levan Varshalomidze where he states that he is not only Saakashvili’s comrade-in-arms, but Misha literally lives within him. The screenshot disseminated by the page “Resident” is fabricated. Neither the Facebook...

On November 2nd, the Facebook page “Miss Décolleté 2018” posted aphoto depicting the fashion line of the creative director of Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia. Namely, the picture shows a model wearing a T-shirt with the following inscription “მიშა შეიწყალეთ” [Pardon Misha]. The post itself is accompanied by the following comment: “Demna Gvasalia, Autumn-Winter 2021,” creating the impression...

After the return and arrest of Mikheil Saakashvili, several coordinated campaigns were launched on the social network to disseminate disinformation and discredit the third president of Georgia. During October 30-31st, the period of the second round of the 2021 local self-government elections and its aftermath, anumber of fabricated quotes were spread in the name of Mikheil...

On October 29th, 202, a few hours before the start of the second round of local self-government elections, an article of the online news agency NSP.ge of August 17th, 2020, was disseminated in a coordinated manner on the social network. The piece uses the following headline “Scandalous Statement of the Russian General: We were not planning to...

On October 30th, the day of the second round of local elections, the Facebook page “Simartlis Droa” [It’s Time for Truth] posted a photo claiming that the election exit polls are being conducted by an organization founded only yesterday. The published photo shows the badge of the representative of the research company “ANOVA” which is contracted by...

On October 29th, 2021, the Facebook page’ Guria Times’ published a post depicting the electoral posters of Konstantine Sharashenidze, the independent mayoral candidate of Ozurgeti. The posters include the picture of Sharashenidze alongside the logo of the United National Movement and electoral number 5 and are accompanied by the following quote: “UNM must return to Ozurgeti.” According...

In September-October, the Lugar Laboratory once again sparked the interest of the Russian media (YouTube channel Military Arsenal, Svpessa.ru) and Georgian pro-Kremlin sources (Georgia and the World, Beka Vardosanidze, Facebook account Lasha Modebadze). During this period, the aforementioned sources made the following new allegations directed against the Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research: Military Arsenal – Военный...

On October 20th, 2021, Facebook user Levan Tavidashvili published a quote from Zbigniew Brzezinski, a diplomat and the former adviser to the US President. The quote alleged that crises, wars, famines, epidemics would not end until the establishment of new world order. In the quote, Brzezinski also says that despite the people’s will, the “unified world order”...