Nato Chkheidze

Nato Chkheidze joined the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia (APG), a far-right and pro-Russian party, ahead of the 2016 parliamentary elections, and became one of its largest financial contributors.[9] She was elected to Parliament, figuring third on the party's electoral list,[10] and became the APG faction's vice-chairwoman, while her husband Zaza Okuashvili was elected to APG's sole seat on the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.[11] In Parliament, she served as vice-chair of the powerful Legal Affairs Committee and sat on the Constitutional Commission of 2016-2018 that rewrote the Constitution, transforming Georgia into a parliamentary republic.[12]

On July 12, 2017, Nato Chkheidze was one of three APG members of Parliament to lead a highly controversial visit to Russia, meeting with Duma leader Leonid Kalashnikov and members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation,[13] at a time when Russia and Georgia maintained no diplomatic relations since the 2008 Russo-Georgia War.[14] Followed by fellow party leaders Giorgi Lomia and Ada Marshania, she visited Russia once more on October 4 of that same year. The APG justified the visit as an attempt to restore ties and work toward conflict resolution in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, although the Georgian government had not authorized the trip.

In 2018, Omega Group once again came under the government's attention and financial probes led to Zaza Okuashvili revealing a plot by government representatives to seek up to 4 million GEL in funding from the company during the 2018 presidential campaign.[15] As APG refused to publicly come out against prosecutorial moves on the renewed Iberia TV, which Chkheidze claimed were politically motivated,[Note 1] Chkheidze left the party,[16] continuing her work as an independent MP on September 18, 2018. Iberia TV permanently shut down its broadcast one month later,[17] while the APG survived from legal disintegration[Note 2] only with the switch of MP Davit Chichinadze from GD to APG.[18] Controversially, Nato Chkheidze received criticism from labor groups as she told Iberia TV employees to "ask the government" for their salaries when the company closed.[19]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was one of 22 opposition MPs that signed a letter backing the government's efforts in securing international funding.[20] Seeking reelection, she joined State for the People (SfP), a minor opposition party led by opera singer Paata Burchuladze that merged into the United National Movement's Strength Is in Unity coalition ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections, becoming a large financial backer of UNM.[21] She ran as the coalition's nominee for the Parliament Majoritarian District of Khashuri-Kareli-Gori[22] and finished second with 29.9% of the vote, securing a place in the runoffs. After allegations of massive voter fraud surfaced, she, along with other opposition candidates, boycotted the runoffs in which she only received 8.2%.[23]

In 13th position on the UNM's electoral list (the highest-ranking SfP member and replacing the potential candidacy of Paata Burchuladze himself), she nonetheless won a seat in Parliament.

Despite winning a parliamentary seat through UNM's electoral list, Nato Chkheidze participated in the opposition's boycott of Parliament, refusing to recognize the electoral results until a short-lived EU-facilitated agreement between Georgian Dream and the opposition in April 2021. Unlike other boycotting MPs, she did not reject her monthly salary throughout her boycott.[24] On May 31, she was selected as vice-chair of the "Strength is in Unity" faction, the largest opposition group in the legislature. Though she left the post a year later, she would retake it on December 12, 2022, serving alongside Levan Bezhashvili and Giorgi Botkoveli.[25] She serves on the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee and as a member of the Georgian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie.

She has routinely received attacks from Georgian Dream officials, including party chairman Irakli Kobakhidze who compared her to a "Bolshevik".[26] She considers herself to be a partisan of former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who died in 1993, and has proposed to change Georgia's Independence Day date from 26 May (commemorating the 1918 declaration of independence) to 9 April (commemorating the independence from the Soviet Union).[27]

Nato Chkheidze has been a strong proponent of increasing the social welfare system, proposing the distribution of apartments to poor families, funding municipal clinics across the country, and lowering the retirement age. In December 2022, she voted in favor of a government-sponsored bill increasing welfare benefits.[28]

MP Chkheidze has spoken out against the National Bank of Georgia, calling for a government intervention to lower commercial interest rates. She voted in favor of a bill sponsored by the libertarian Girchi party to investigate the NBG's price stability policy.[29] Critical of the country's judicial system, she co-sponsored a 2019 bill to end lifetime appointment of judges,[30] as well as another one calling for measures to end what she calls "clan governance" in courts.[31]

Despite being originally considered to be one of Georgia's most Kremlin-friendly politicians, her views changed over time. She's co-sponsored a bill on the creation of a special investigative committee to study allegations of cooperation between Georgia's State Security Service and Russian secret services.[32] She was one of 18 opposition MPs to propose a reform package to match the European Commission's June 2022 recommendations for the country to receive the EU membership candidacy.[33]

A staunch conservative, Nato Chkheidze's comments in 2019 over the appointment of Maia Tskitishvili as Minister of Infrastructure (stating such a ministry would be "too much of a burden" for a woman) raised much criticism for women's rights groups. Following the death of a television cameraman during the 2021 anti-LGBTQ riots, she led a protest in the session hall of Parliament along with fellow MPs Tina Bokuchava and Ana Natsvlishvili, taking over the Speaker's chair and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili.[34]

On May 17, 2023, Nato Chkheidze and other SFP members left the Strength is in Unity parliamentary faction after breaking the faction's opposition to the confirmation of three nominees for the High Council of Justice who were seen by civil society groups as pro-governmental candidates.