Conservative Movement/Alt-Info is a political entity of the far-right and openly pro-Russian Alt-Info. Through it, the far-right group, which initially emerged as a television station, is trying to get involved in the political life of the country. The leaders of the Conservative Movement/Alt-Info are organizers of the July 5, 2021 mass violence. However, they have not been held responsible up to now.
Information about the finances of the Conservative Movement/Alt-Info had not been available for a long time, despite the fact that, according to the founders of the party, they were absolutely transparently financed by local businessmen, as well as those living in the post-Soviet countries.
The officially declared amount donated to the Conservative Movement/Alt-Info from its foundation to September 15, 2022 amounted to GEL 391,656. Although the party had a financial turnover in 2021, it hid this information from the State Audit Service. At the same time, from December 14, 2021 to May 15, 2022, the party received non-monetary donations- a total of GEL 72,494 at different times and from different persons, which it hid and did not report to the State Audit Service.
According to the DRI observation, donors donate money to the Conservative Movement/Alt-Info with similar periodicity, mostly on the same days of the month. The overwhelming majority of the party's donors are heads of the party's regional offices. Most of them have donated money to the party several times. According to the current data, in total, the party has received 370 donations from 94 individuals. 73 out of 94 donors have donated money several times.
Zurab Kobakhidze is the Conservative Movement/Alt-Info’s biggest donor. He has donated a total of GEL 33,723 to the party. Neither Zurab Kobakhidze nor his wife has any real estate registered in their names. Out of five biggest donors, only two - Merab Gigani and Kakhaber Elizbarashvili - own real estate.
The Conservative Movement/Alt-Info donors are, in some cases, persons having ties with the Georgian Dream. One of the big donors, Zezva Chankseliani, is the son of Murad Chankseliani, Deputy Chairman of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia faction of the Lentekhi Municipal Council. The company owned by him regularly participates in and wins state tenders. Former governor of Lanchkhuti and businessman Gia Gotua is also worth noting. He is the head of the Lanchkhuti regional office of the party. He owns Iveria 7 LLC, which actively participates in state tenders. Since 2012, the company has won contracts worth GEL 11,299,642.33. In 44 out of 77 tenders, Iveria 7 LLC had no contender.
The chairman of the party's regional organization in Mestia is Giorgi Ratiani, who had been an employee of the Counterintelligence Department of the State Security Service of Georgia in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti since 2017 and had been supervising the Mestia municipality. Like Ratiani, the head of the Dmanisi office, Giorgi Arghvliani, is also a former employee of the so-called power structures. In 2013, he was the deputy chief of Mestia regional division of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti main regional division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.
The regional office of the Conservative Movement in Akhmeta is located in the space owned by the family of Kakha Mamulashvili, a Georgian Dream member of the Akhmeta Municipal Council and Chairman of the Finance and Budget Commission. The Tskaltubo office of the Conservative Movement is owned by Revaz Mkheidze, the son of Avtandil Mkheidze, majoritarian MP of the Georgian Dream in Tskaltubo Town Council.
The attempt to adopt the Russian law and the rhetoric of the party's high-ranking officials against joining the European Union are a betrayal of the Constitution and the Georgian people.
