‘You’re in our home! So shut your mouth!’ A Georgian man who broke a Russian woman’s nose is released on bail after demonstrators in Tbilisi march in his support

A Georgian man accused of breaking a Russian tourist's nose at a hotel in the Kakheti region has been released on bail, Meduza reports. Video of the assault, viewed more than seventeen million times online, shows a man bursting into the women's room and punching one of them in the face. The victim's friends say the confrontation began because the group was speaking Russian. The man's defense attorney tells it differently, saying the women disrupted a wedding taking place below their balcony and damaged the audio equipment. Georgia's Interior Ministry detained the man, identified as the groom's brother, on a charge of intentionally causing minor bodily harm, which carries up to three years in prison. He was freed on bail of five thousand lari and told the court he regretted what he had done, after demonstrators marched in Tbilisi in his support. The hotel says its staff did not disclose the guests' room number and did not take part in the altercation. The case has fueled an ongoing argument online over who started the fight and whether Georgia is safe for Russian-speaking visitors.

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