Zurab Makharadze, the face of the ultra-right-wing and pro-Russia organisation Alt Info in Georgia, has been removed as the chair of the group's political branch.

Earlier, the Georgian Public Registry authorised Giorgi Kardava's appointment to replace Makharadze as chair of the Conservative Movement, Alt Info's political branch, on April 11. According to the records, the party applied on March 28. Makharadze has been Alt Info's public face.

Makharadze said in a video on March 13 that he would be out of Tbilisi for a month or longer, as well as from Alt Info's eponymous TV station, where he was a frequent speaker, since he would be working 'in another format.'

One of the founders of Alt Info, Konstantine Morgoshia, refuted rumours that Makharadze had fled to Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but refused to elaborate. A month later, a Facebook account that claimed to belong to Makharadze wrote a post about the Conservative Movement's recent and upcoming travels to Russia.

Earlier, MP Irakli Kobakhidze of the ruling Georgian Dream party said that the largest opposition group, the United National Movement, "causes a hundred times more damage to the state than Alt-Info."

The UNM's case, according to MP Kobakhidze, is "more serious" than Alt Info, since the "participates in elections, achieves assured success, [and] has more influential media resources."

In March, Vakhtang Gomelauri, Georgia's Interior Minister, was questioned in Parliament on how he plans to safeguard activists who have been openly threatened by members of the pro-Russian group Alt-Info and the Conservative Movement.

The target of Alt-Info's threats is activist Samira Bayramova, who resides in Marneuli, a city in the Kvemo Kartli area dominated by ethnic Azerbaijanis.

Samira Bayramova, in protest of the Conservative Movement's installation of an office at the Alt-Info base in Marneuli, painted the office wall in the colours of the Ukrainian and European Union flags.

Following this, members of the organisation began to threaten Samira Bayramova. Fans of Alt-Info produced a video on social media pleading with Bayramova to restore the office's front to its previous state, which she was given two days to do.