Dozens of far-right protesters attempted to storm the house of a woman who allegedly defaced an icon featuring Georgian-born Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin at the main cathedral in Tbilisi

The appearance in Holy Trinity Cathedral of an icon that features Saint Matrona of Moscow, a Russian Orthodox saint, blessing Stalin sparked uproar when it was recently discovered

It was donated to the church by the Alliance of Patriots, a pro-Russian conservative political party

Civil society organizations called on the Georgian Orthodox Church to remove the icon from the cathedral

However, church spokesperson Andria Jagmaidze dismissed the uproar as an anti-church campaign, saying “this is not an icon of Stalin” but rather an icon featuring Stalin

“Villains can be featured on icons too, such as Diocletian. But this is a different case, Stalin is not featured here in negative context,” he said

For Nata Peradze, who allegedly splashed paint on the icon, showcasing Stalin in church is “a weapon of influence”[…]
Far-right group Alt Info, which burned EU flags after Georgia received EU membership candidate status in December, besieged her apartment on Wednesday and attempted to storm the building several times, but were held back by police. She later reported that her friends had been attacked

Sovlab, which studies Georgia’s Soviet past, said the icon depicts Stalin in a positive light, and that displaying it at the church was an insult to his victims[…]
Officials from Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party dubbed the icon’s defacement as an “anti-Christian, anti-church and provocative act”