The figurehead president warned that denying EU membership candidate status would embolden Russia and empower the already-ascendant forces of illiberalism in Georgia.
Tbilisi seems to be facilitating Armenia-Russia maritime links, but has no intention, for now, of reviving the railway connection through breakaway Abkhazia.
With little willingness among politicians to overcome the divisions that plague the country, some groups and individuals are taking matters into their own hands.
The BBC's findings are a boon to Georgia's ruling party, which has long cast Davit Kezerashvili as a corrupt oligarch secretly bankrolling the opposition.
The election of an independent ombudsperson through a transparent process was among the 12 conditions the country must fulfill to become an EU membership candidate.
The ruling party promised it would go through all formal procedures to defeat one of the bills, which already passed in the first reading. That will take more than 10 days though.