An icon depicting the Soviet leader been installed in the central cathedral in Tbilisi
An unusual “tribute” to the late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has been spotted in Holy Trinity Cathedral – the chief place of worship of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the nation’s capital of Tbilisi. A video showing the Georgian-born head of the USSR depicted on an icon inside the cathedral surfaced on social media earlier this week.
Stalin, wearing his signature trench coat, is depicted next to a woman saint in the image. The context of his appearance on the icon is unclear. The news immediately drew the attention of some Georgian politicians, who rushed to link the development to alleged Russian influence.
“Russia is scoring solid success as both the EU and US fail to recognize the central role of weaponization of memory in Russia’s information warfare agenda, and that of Stalin in particular,” Giorgi Kandelaki, a former Georgian MP and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
An icon to none other but Joseph Stalin in the of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi. Russia is scoring solid success as both EU and US fail to recognize the central role of weaponization of memory in Russia's information warfare agenda and that of Stalin in particular pic.twitter.com/ejYE5CFngQ
— Giorgi Kandelaki (@kandelakigiorgi) January 6, 2024
Moscow and Tbilisi severed diplomatic ties in 2008 in the wake of the war in Georgia. The five-day conflict erupted on the night of August 8, 2008, when US-backed Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili sent troops into the breakaway region of South Ossetia, shelling a Russian peacekeeper base. Moscow recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region, on August 26, shortly after defeating the Georgian Army.
Relations between the two neighbors have remained strained ever since. Direct flights between the two countries were suspended in 2019 and only resumed in May 2023.