On March 20, after leaving the courtyard of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Irakli Rukhadze verbally insulted a journalist from the TV company “Formula.”

The journalist was asking Rukhadze about the sale of shares in the TV company “Imedi.” Irakli Rukhadze asked the journalist which television company they represented. After learning that the journalist was a representative of “Formula,” he verbally insulted them and ran away.

“Come on, get out of here,” Irakli Rukhadze told the “Formula” journalist, which can be clearly heard in a video released by the television company.

On February 24, 2026, four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on pro-government TV companies “Imedi” and “POSTV” for spreading disinformation against Ukraine.

It is noteworthy that a few weeks before the sanctions, on January 30, the full share of the TV company “Imedi” was sold for a symbolic price of 1,000 GEL by a company linked to businessman Irakli Rukhadze. The day after the sanctions were imposed, he also stepped down from the position of chairman of the supervisory board of “Imedi.”