Shota Apkhaidze joined the Eurasian Institute, headed by Gulbaat Rtskhiladze, after he was released from custody as a political prisoner following the change of the government in 2012. He was convicted for bursting into the studio of Kavkasia TV in 2010, together with the representatives of Orthodox Parents’ Union and People’s Orthodox Movement, and committing a hate crime.
Prior to his detention, Apkhaidze served as a publicist for Malkhaz Gulashvili’s media holding Georgian Times. Malkhaz Gulashvili was also the chairman of the People’s Orthodox Movement which was formed in 2010. At that time, Apkhaidze was named as one of the members of this movement and stated as the chairman of the youth movement “Forward”.
In 2013, Apkhaidze took part in the event organized by Caucasian Cooperation, involving a tour to North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan. It was at this meeting that Shota Apkhaidze stated that “Saakashvili committed genocide of the Ossetian people in 2008.”
In 2015, Apkhaidze founded the Caucasus Center for Islamic Studies.
Apkhaidze frequently appears in various media outlets, among them Sputnik, Tsargrad TV, Новостной Фронт, etc. Shota Apkhaidze was positioned in Russian propagandistic media as one of the organizers of xenophobic and anti-migration march held in July 2017 upon the initiative of the then ultranationalist movement (now party), Georgian March.
Shota Apkhaidze has stood out with openly pro-Russian and anti-Western messages in various interviews. You can find some of the related articles here.
In November 2019, Shota Apkhaidze appeared on air at TV Zvezda, a Russian Defense Ministry-owned TV channel, as a journalist. The TV program “On air” (“Открытый эфир”) was devoted to a TV report prepared by Apkhaidze that reiterated Kremlin’s propagandist conspiracies on organ sale in Eastern Ukraine during the hostilities.
In the Georgian version of the pro-Kremlin outlet “NewsFront,” Shota Apkhaidze was indicated as the editor, nonetheless, he has later denied the fact with “Myth Detector.”
Shota Apkhaidze and Gulbaat Rtskhiladze have a 50%-50% of LTD Agro-Geo. In the company’s extract from the Register of Entrepreneurs and Non-entrepreneur (Non-commercial) Legal Entities, the email address of the company states [email protected] which is the address of the Eurasian Institute, headed by Gulbaat Rtskhiladze.
