Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s fifth president and considered by many to be the sole legitimate leader of the Caucasus country, had eggs thrown at her when she arrived at Tbilisi airport from the Munich Security Conference on February 18.

Footage shared on social media shows a woman verbally confronting the former president as the latter left the terminal building in the early hours of the morning. Several others then threw eggs at Zourabichvili, some of which hit her head, despite her two bodyguards’ attempts to shield her with their bodies.

The clip then shows the former president attempting to wipe her hair clean as she is led to a waiting car.

The aggressors shouted that the former president is a “traitor” and “slave”, words usually used by pro-EU, anti-government protesters in Georgia to refer to the Russia-friendly Georgian Dream government and law enforcement officials acting under their instruction to crack down violently on street demonstrations.

Zourabichvili was returning from the weekend’s security conference in the Bavarian capital – the only Georgian official in attendance – during which she called on Georgia’s Western partners, the EU and US, for a stronger reaction to increasing domestic repression and hostility by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

The former president declared the Georgian Dream government illegitimate following Georgia’s contested parliamentary vote in October 2024. GD then appointed a new president once Zourabichvili’s term ended in December, though the latter has declared that she remains the country’s only legitimate ruler.

In the wake of the attack, the ruling party attempted to portray the egg throwers as representatives of an angry society who oppose Zourabichvili’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to ensure foreign support for Georgian pro-EU protesters and call for further international sanctions in order to isolate the GD government.

“She is no longer the president of Georgia, but she continues to betray the country, roams abroad, and tries her best to harm the country… It is understandable that society as a certain reaction to treason,” Davit Matikashvili, the chair of the committee on procedural issues and rules of the GD Parliament, commented in response to the attack on the former president, as reported by local outlet Civil.ge.

The incident followed a similar one on February 17 when Giorgi Gakharia, leader of the For Georgia opposition party, and his colleague Elguja Khokrishvili were also pelted with eggs in Tbilisi airport on their return from Munich.

The attacks also hurled insults at the pair: “Are you no longer funded by USAID?... Are you no longer a sell-out, an unprincipled agent?”, echoing recent GD condemnation of entities operating in Georgia under the influence of and funded by subversive “external forces”.

Local Georgian outlets point to “government-paid thugs” as being behind both attacks. Anonymous “Titushky” assailants have previously targeted and injured protesters, journalists and opposition members at pro-European street protests which have gripped Georgia for over 80 consecutive nights since GD announced the suspension of EU accession talks.

As was the case during prior attacks, the “thugs” were able to act with impunity: TV Pirveli reported how airport security and patrol police present at the scene did not react or responded in any way during either attack.

In a statement released after the attack, the For Georgia party condemned the incident as a pre-planned attack by “a pre-organised group of party thugs”, “aided and abetted by the total inaction of the police on the scene, who had also been warned in advance”. 

“It is clear that [GD founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili is afraid of the results of the Munich Security Conference, and this hysteria is caused by this fear,” the statement added, suggesting that the oligarch Ivanishvili hoped to scare Gakharia and Khokrishvili into abstaining from engaging in discussions with western officials in future.

“Bidzina Ivanishvili will inevitably experience the consequences of the Munich Security Conference” warning “we promise that he will lose what is most precious to him – money and power,” the For Georgia executive secretary, Berdia Sichinava, stated at a briefing, signalling that EU sanctions on the oligarch may be iminent, following talks in Munich.

This is the second attack on Giorgi Gakharia in two months. The politician was hospitalised with a broken nose and concussion after being beaten by several GD MPs in a Batumi hotel on January 14. The attack, according to Gakharia, was politically motivated and aimed at intimidating the opposition.