In September 2025, Tbilisi City Court sentenced three Russian citizens to 8.5 years in prison in drug possession cases. Anton Chechin received that term on September 2, while Anastasia Zinovkina and Artem Gribulya were given the same sentence on September 12. All three denied guilt and said the drugs had been planted, arguing that the cases were tied to their participation in opposition protests in Tbilisi in the autumn of 2024.
According to relatives and lawyers, the Russians were not protest organizers but volunteers who helped demonstrators by handing out water, tea, and tissues and rinsing the eyes of people affected by tear gas. After the verdict against Zinovkina and Gribulya was announced, a scuffle broke out in court; blogger Anton Rubin said a bailiff choked him while the audience was being forced out of the building.
Lawyer Darya Samodurova said the same detention pattern appeared in all three cases and that prosecution witnesses were not truly independent. She argued that interpreters present during the searches had ties to investigators. She also pointed to other inconsistencies, including issues with body-camera footage and the handling of the seized substances.
Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, said doubts in Anton Chechin’s case were resolved in favor of the prosecution, and that similar practices had been seen in cases against other protest participants charged under anti-drug statutes.
According to the outlet’s sources, since November 2024 at least six protest participants in Georgia have been arrested on similar accusations, including three Georgian citizens; in August 2025, the Georgian defendants in such cases were acquitted. Defense lawyers for the Russian convicts plan to appeal the verdicts. Human rights advocates are also seeking information on whether extradition to Russia is possible.