“Like this”: a Russian activist and her partner were detained in a drug possession case in Georgia; she participated in local protests

The Georgian criminal police detained Russian activist Anastasia Zinovkina and her partner Artem Gribulya in Tbilisi on charges of drug possession on a particularly large scale. This was reported by the publication “That’s So” with reference to Zinovkina’s friend and her lawyer.

Zinovkina and Gribulya were detained on December 17 in the residential area of ​​Tbilisi Saburtalo near their home. According to them, during the search the security forces planted 16 grams of the synthetic drug alpha-pvp on them . The Tbilisi life telegram channel also reported about the couple’s detention.

According to “That’s So”, Zinovkina moved to Georgia in December 2022. At the end of 2023, she left for the territory of neighboring Armenia to reset her stay in Georgia, but the country’s border service did not let her back. In the summer of 2024, Zinovkina and Gribulya were able to get to Georgia, where they remained to live, “because they considered it safer than Armenia.”

“Zinovkina’s relatives call the case fabricated for political reasons, since the girl participated in protests of the Georgian opposition. Anastasia was also involved in political activism in Russia,” writes “That’s So.”

In October 2016, Anastasia Zinovkina and two other activists were detained while trying to hang a banner with the inscription “God grant us to see the Russian riot” on the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge from the side of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. She was fined 15 thousand rubles.

In 2019, she was arrested for nine days for participating in an action blocking a road in Moscow’s Sokolniki with the banner “Resign the State Duma.”

On November 28, 2024, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that the country was abandoning negotiations on accession to the European Union until the end of 2028.

Kobakhidze's decision caused mass protests in Georgia in Tbilisi and other cities of the country, which lasted more than three weeks. The police detained more than 300 people at the protests, including at least 15 Russian citizens.

According to Mediazona, three Russians received arrests from 10 to 13 days, two received fines from 2700 to 3000 lari (~100-111 thousand rubles), another Russian was expelled from the territory of Georgia to Armenia.