"Russian Club" in Georgia - the organization is funded by Ivanishvili and Putin

Cultural Educational Union "Russian Club", sponsored by Bidzina Ivanishvili and Vladimir Putin, is the organization that promotes Russian culture in Georgia and other countries. Its members also recently visited Shekvetili and held cultural evenings in June amid the Covid pandemic.

Investigative journalists investigated their connections and found that one of the sponsors was the "Cartu" Foundation. Information about this is on several Russian websites, however, information on the activities of the foundation are not available in Georgia.

Investigative journalists have reported that Bidzina Ivanishvili's Cartu Foundation is actively funding Russian projects under the auspices of Putin and the Russian Foreign Ministry and as part of Russia's soft power policy.

"If you look at Russian sites there, you will find quite a bit of information about how Bidzina Ivanishvili's charity fund is co-financing, along with a fund like the" Russian World" founded by Putin in 2007. 

Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is a decision-maker and rejected 75 million euros from the EU because of his dirty and dark political motives, is actively funding such events for his and Putin's purposes from his charity fund, which in fact serves to spread soft power here," said journalist Eka Tsamalashvili.