At the Agarani Estate hotel in Kakheti, a man broke into a room where female tourists were staying and struck one of them in the face. Video of the attack was posted on Instagram by the victim’s friend, Polina Kurta. By the time the report was published, the clip had received more than 17 million views and 227,000 likes.
Kurta said her friend Yulia was assaulted because the group was speaking Russian. According to her, an ambulance was called after the fight, the injured woman was taken to hospital, and the women gave statements to police. In Instagram stories, the blogger also claimed the attacker heard them speaking Russian from the balcony and that hotel staff allegedly told him which room the tourists were staying in.
However, comments online and later media reports offered a different version. Some users said the dispute began after the women disrupted a wedding taking place at the hotel. The Telegram channel Baza, citing Yulia, reported that she suffered a broken nose. Another friend, Vladislava, told the channel that the group had checked into a room with a balcony overlooking the wedding area, and that after opening champagne they were shouted at from below and accused of damaging DJ equipment.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said the attacker had been detained. According to the ministry, the fight began after foreigners insulted wedding guests from a balcony and poured water on equipment.
Police are investigating the incident as intentional minor bodily harm; the suspect faces up to three years in prison. Agarani Estate said the incident resulted from the actions of individual guests, condemned the violence, and denied claims that staff disclosed the room number or took part in the fight.
Russian media described the injured woman as a Russian tourist, but Georgia’s Interior Ministry neither confirmed nor denied that in a comment to TASS. Kurta herself said she was born in Ukraine, lives in Russia, and that her friends also came to Georgia to celebrate a birthday.