On October 10, 2018, civic activist Giga Makarashvili and members of the movement “Russia is an Occupier” arrived at the Gori City Hall, where they poured wheat and hay on the stairs as a performance protest. The action was a response to Gori Mayor Konstantine Tavzarashvili’s controversial statement claiming that Gori had bombed Tskhinvali in 2008, as well as his racist remark toward then–U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The organizers titled the performance “Mayor, You Sun” (“მერო, შე მზეო”), explaining that Bidzina Ivanishvili “feeds the public with crumbs while the government sinks into hay.” Activist Ana Charkhalashvili called on the mayor to apologize publicly.

After the protest ended, while Makarashvili was cleaning the steps, City Hall employee Temur Manvelishvili came out of the building and dumped a trash bin full of garbage on his head. The Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an investigation under the article of “battery,” though human rights defenders demanded that the case be reclassified as “inhuman and degrading treatment.”

On October 16, the movement “Russia is an Occupier” organized another protest in front of the Government Chancellery in Tbilisi, placing trash bins labeled “Official Stinks,” “Russia is an Occupier,” and “Throw in Russian Propaganda Trash,” demanding the resignation of the Gori mayor.

Before the investigation concluded, the mayor’s internal review ended on November 26, resulting in a mere reprimand for Manvelishvili. According to the head of the Gori office of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Keti Bebiashvili, this was a case of inhuman and degrading treatment, a serious disciplinary violation, and a breach of ethical norms—making the imposed sanction inadequate.