Former Georgian Interior Ministry official Lasha Shergelashvili, who served as the head of the Armaments Department of the Special Operations Directorate, said on Formula TV that a banned substance was used to suppress a protest outside the Central Election Commission in 2020. When asked if he had any suspicions, he replied that he "knew for sure that it was used" as he was there at the time.
More than 100 representatives of the Chechen diaspora, as well as human rights activists and activists, took part in the rally in Vienna. They asked to pay attention to the facts of illegal deportation of Chechen refugees from European countries to the Russian Federation, where they face torture, unjust sentences and death.
The action was attended by activists from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Austria, the local movement Antifa and the human rights organization Stop Deportation. They noted that many Chechen refugees deported to Russia from various countries were subsequently killed, imprisoned or missing.
In addition, according to the rally participants, refugees in Austrian prisons and deportation institutions in other countries are subjected to violence and pressure. Many of them left the Russian Federation, fleeing from mobilization for the war with Ukraine.