On 25 August, the opposition parties in Georgia demanded that the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia be prohibited from running in the October parliamentary elections. This demand follows the release of an investigation of the Dossier Center, which tracks the criminal activities associated with the Kremlin, reported agenda.ge. 

The investigation revealed that the Kremlin financially supports politicians Irma Inashvili and David Tarkhan-Mouravi, who are leading the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia in the upcoming elections. The Dossier Center quoted the secretary of the Russian SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) General Vladimir Chernov, who heads the president's department for interregional and cultural relations with foreign countries.

“The Dossier Center writes that the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia requested more than $8 million from the Administration of the President of Russia. The Alliance of Patriots representatives have allegedly sent a budget for four months of the election campaign to Moscow. They are ready to spend $166,667 on souvenirs alone, and the total expenses are estimated at $8,430,625, which is a huge amount for poor Georgia,” says Dossier Center. According to the Center, the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia has hired political strategist Sergey Mikheev and the Moscow company POLITSECRETS to promote the party. 'Dossier' also wrote that the Russian consulting company advised the Alliance to stir up controversy among voters, intensify anti-Western propaganda and focus on the undecided electorate.

Elene Khostharia, one of the leaders of European Georgia party and the majoritarian candidate for the Vake district of Tbilisi, even submitted a statement to the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia today regarding the Kremlin’s financing of the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia.

Inashvili denied the allegations, saying that Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili and Giga Bokeria (currently one of the leaders of the opposition European Georgia party and a former member of Saakashvili's United National Movement party) ordered the Dossier Center to investigate this allegation. A day after the report was published, the local media in the Georgian separatist region of Abkhazia reported that the advisor to the de-facto President of the region Lasha Sakania submitted his resignation following a meeting with the Alliance of Patriots representatives.

A few days earlier, 23 Georgian opposition parties signed a memorandum to ensure integrity for the upcoming elections in the country. The declaration read that a ‘voter protection headquarters’ will be created which will be headed by Paata Davitaia, the leader of the European Democrats of Georgia. The parties would also create a database of violations observed during the elections and will also agree how to react to such violations. An agreement was also made as to how to cooperate with NGOs and international partners during the election period.

According to the electoral law in Georgia, the candidates and parties are prohibited from receiving donations from foreign citizens, companies, international and religious organisations, movements, government agencies and anonymous sponsors in Georgia.