Until recently, oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan had managed to stay in the government’s good graces. But then he started criticizing them more sharply, and now the authorities have unveiled several criminal cases against him.
Tbilisi may have refused to let the insult slide because Georgia’s coronavirus response has become an electoral platform for the governing party, which faces a parliamentary vote this fall.
Two weeks after the country largely ended its lockdown, the number of coronavirus cases has shot up and the government is preparing to use a repurposed sports hall to treat patients.