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The UK sanctions 4 Georgians for Kremlin disinformation and names Tskhinvali’s leadersKazakhstan’s inflation slows to 9.3% in September as the tenge opens the week at 447.73Turkmenistan reports 6.3% growth for 9 months and a budget collected to 100.1% of planFour German party foundations stop work in Georgia after Tbilisi rejects their grants
Politics

The UK sanctions 4 Georgians for Kremlin disinformation and names Tskhinvali’s leaders

Britain’s package of 1 October lists 23 individuals and entities and 8 ships. Among them are 7 people “involved in spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation”, 4 of them Georgian nationals, and the serving and former heads of the Russian-installed authority in South Ossetia. The same evening a few dozen people rallied in Tbilisi’s Rike Park for Mikheil Saakashvili’s release, against the interior ministry’s refusal.

By CAW Staff2 October 2026
A glass jar of coins closed with a small brass padlock on a sand-coloured table, one amber coin outside it.

Interpressnews and JAMnews name the four from the UK list: Mamuka Pipia, a businessman who chairs the Solidarity for Peace party; Giorgi Iremadze, a member of the same party; Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, a journalist living in Russia; and Paata Abuladze, an analyst. The British notice describes the seven propagandists as ranging “from legitimising Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory to serving in Russian-installed authorities in occupied South Ossetia”.

Asset freezes, trust services sanctions and director disqualification apply to all 23, with travel bans for the individuals. The South Ossetian names are Marat Kambolov, the de facto president in Tskhinvali, Alan Gagloev, his predecessor, and Sergei Tolmachev, a Russian political strategist, JAMnews reported from the same list.

The British notice describes the seven propagandists as ranging “from legitimising Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory to serving in Russian-installed authorities in occupied South Ossetia”.

Grigol Gegelia of the opposition said the Kremlin “could not have given us a better gift” than such defenders of Russian interests in Georgia. No reaction from the government had appeared on Interpressnews’s front by 22:31 on Thursday, and the ruling party’s last word on the day was a statement on the prime minister’s attendance at a reception in New York on 22 September.

The rally went ahead without permission. The interior ministry refused the United National Movement’s application, citing the city’s preparations at the site for the Tbilisoba festival on 3 and 4 October, asked the organisers for another time and place, and 20 minutes before the start warned them to keep away from the Rike complex for “heightened security risks”, Sova reported. A few dozen people gathered at the park’s open amphitheatre and the rally passed calmly, the outlet said.

Ana Tsitlidze told the crowd that Saakashvili’s imprisonment is a national disgrace and that he is the only person Bidzina Ivanishvili fears. Saakashvili’s own statement marked the day as the fifth anniversary of his arrest on 1 October 2021. The UK list and the empty amphitheatre describe the same week: the sanctions reach Georgians who speak for Moscow, and the party that once ran the state draws dozens.

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