TBILISI, September 8 – Georgia’s former chief prosecutor Otar Romanov-Partskhaladze says he has formed a volunteer unit in Russia that will fight on Moscow’s side in the war against Ukraine.
Partskhaladze told Russian state news agency TASS on Monday that he had personally decided to join the war effort and had created an international volunteer unit called “Georgievsky”.
He linked the unit’s name to the Treaty of Georgievsk, the 1783 agreement between the Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and the Russian Empire, saying the treaty had played a major role in Georgian history.
Partskhaladze also invoked the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, referring to Russian soldier Mikhail Yegorov and Georgian soldier Meliton Kantaria, who were associated with raising the Soviet victory flag over the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945.
According to Partskhaladze, the new unit brings together supporters of closer ties between Russia and Georgia and people who advocate what he described as traditional family values.
He said he had decided voluntarily to fight for Russia against Ukraine and portrayed Russia’s war as a struggle against Western pressure and in defense of identity, traditions, language and culture.
Partskhaladze briefly served as Georgia’s prosecutor general in 2013, but resigned that same year. He later remained a prominent and controversial figure in Georgian public life. By 2025, he no longer held Georgian citizenship and was a Russian citizen. Georgian authorities have since placed him on an international wanted list.
He is currently being prosecuted in Georgia in connection with the killing of businessman Levan Jangveladze. Prosecutors accuse Partskhaladze of organizing a contract killing for financial gain, a charge carrying 16 to 20 years or life imprisonment. His lawyers reject the accusation and say the case against him is unfounded. He is being tried in absentia while living in Russia.
Partskhaladze is also charged in a separate criminal case linked to fraudulent call centers operating in Georgia. Prosecutors accuse him, along with several others, of organized fraud and money laundering. He denies wrongdoing.
