Activist Arrested for Pouring Paint on Matrona Icon Featuring Stalin in Tbilisi

A civil activist named Nata Peradze has been arrested in her home in Tbilisi for pouring paint on the icon of Saint Matrona of Moscow at the Holy Trinity Cathedral on January 9. Georgian media reports this incident.

According to the court's ruling, Peradze has been detained for five days for minor hooliganism and is being held in investigative isolation. Immediately after the act of vandalism in the cathedral, Peradze confessed on social media that she was the one who poured paint on the icon of Moscow's Matrona, which features the image of Joseph Stalin. The activist justified her actions by the unacceptable presence of a Russian saint's icon in the primary Georgian cathedral, claiming that it also portrays a 'dictator.'

Reports indicate that a radical group of citizens attempted to carry out vigilante justice against Peradze, but the police intervened to prevent it. Due to this situation, Peradze had been hiding for several days in another apartment with her daughter.

Two years ago, the human-sized icon commissioned by the opposition party "Alliance of Patriotic Georgians" is currently being restored after the act of vandalism. Upon the recommendation of the Georgian Patriarchate, Stalin's image will be removed from the icon of Saint Matrona, as the fact of Matrona meeting Stalin has not been proven, including by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Following the incident, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, stated to reporters that the desecration of the icon has become a continuation of the radical opposition's campaign to tarnish the Georgian Orthodox Church.