Russian Activist Anton Chechin Sentenced to 8.5 Years on Drug Charges in Tbilisi Court
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Russian activist Anton Chechin was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison on September 2 after Tbilisi City Court found him guilty of possessing a large quantity of narcotics, in what his defense calls a politically motivated case tied to his participation in Georgia's pro-EU protests.
Judge Jvebe Nachkebia delivered the verdict early in the morning, marking the fifteenth prison sentence handed down in connection with the anti-government demonstrations that erupted last November, and the first conviction in a protest-related drug case.
Chechin, 26, pleaded not guilty. His defense argued that police planted the drugs on him because of his activism. "I fought for democratic values so that law enforcement and state agencies would work for the benefit of citizens against a totalitarian government," he told the court in his closing remarks, according to RFE/RL Georgian Service.
Chechin was charged under Article 260 of Georgia's Criminal Code, which punishes illegal purchase and possession of large quantities of narcotics with eight years to life in prison. Prosecutors said he carried 7.5 grams of Alpha-PVP, a synthetic stimulant.
Police claimed he resisted arrest, explaining the absence of video footage of his detention. Prosecutors presented interpreter Shorena Tabatadze as a neutral witness, but the defense argued she had ties to investigators and only arrived after the drugs were allegedly seized.
The prosecution said traces of Chechin's DNA were found on the package. Defense lawyers countered that his DNA had been collected after the arrest through an invasive search and later planted on the evidence.
Chechin also reported being physically abused in custody. In the letter he wrote in June, he wrote that after requesting transfer to a non-smokers' cell, five or six officers dragged him out, denied him medical care, and placed him in a punishment cell. He later received a pill and painkiller injection but reported bruises and joint pain. A neurosurgeon testified that he suffers from a cystic brain growth that requires surgery to determine whether it is benign.
Chechin's case is one of six drug-related arrests linked to the December protests, all of which the defendants claimed were fabricated. Two Georgians, Giorgi Akhobadze and Tedo Abramov, were acquitted in August, the only not-guilty rulings in protest-related criminal trials so far.
In the cases of Chechin and two other Russian citizens - Anastasia Zinovkina and Artem Gribul - prosecutors said police translators acted as neutral witnesses, an argument strongly contested by defense teams.
Before relocating to Georgia, Chechin was active in anti-Putin protests in Russia and supported opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He also joined rallies against Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in his favor over his arrest at a pro-Navalny rally, finding Russia had violated his rights.
Chechin moved to Georgia in spring 2022, where he met his wife, Manana Samkharadze. He volunteered to help displaced Ukrainians and became active in Georgia's protest movement, participating in rallies against the foreign agents law in May 2024 and again in the mass pro-EU demonstrations that November and December.
According to his defense, Chechin was first detained on November 18, 2024, during post-election protests and threatened to stop demonstrating. He was arrested again on December 3 near his home on his way to work. His lawyer said plainclothes officers put him in a car and slipped a bag containing a white powder into his jacket pocket. No video of the arrest exists.
Despite contesting the evidence and alleging political persecution, Chechin now faces one of the harshest sentences handed down in Georgia's protest-related prosecutions.
