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.”
“I’m confident that this is a Russian signature. Stalin killed my whole family, he instilled terror and fear, he was not a hero,” Peradze told POLITICO.
She began receiving death threats after she posted a 3-second video on Facebook, showing the icon covered in paint.
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.
Sovlab emphasized that up to 80,000 clergy were killed for their faith during Stalin’s rule, and demanded the government enforce a law forbidding the display of Soviet symbols in public spaces.
Officials from Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party dubbed the icon’s defacement as an “anti-Christian, anti-church and provocative act.”
On Wednesday, the chair of the legal committee in Georgia’s parliament announced that Georgian Dream plans to enact stricter punishments for “insulting religious buildings and objects” in order to “prevent insults against … churches.”