भिडियो सहित हेर्नुहोस !
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What surprised everybody was the quality of the recording.
Links sent as messages by anonymous Facebook accounts on Friday March 11 to members of the Georgian media opened up a video of a former government minister, recognisable to everyone, having extra-marital sex in high definition.
Despite an apparent effort by the authorities to block YouTube, the damage was done. The file had been replicated, and the footage went viral.
Soon it was followed by another video the following Monday of an apparently unidentified personality (though many Georgians have their suspicions), engaged in a sexual activity. This one was accompanied by a threat:
"There are many more of these videos of politicians and the elite who sold out their homeland. We call on you to leave your current positions, otherwise everyone will know about your sexual immoralities, orientations and drug-addictions."
TV station at centre of Georgian political tug of war - The Listening Post
Serving ministers, a party leader, and a well known journalist were named and warned: "You have until March 31 to leave politics or we will upload new films in order to clear you out of the political arena."
Most media outlets in Georgia chose not to name those featured in the videos, but the implicated journalist, a political talkshow host, tried to level with the blackmailers live on daytime TV:
"I am Inga Grigolia - woman, daughter, mother and friend. I have a wonderful boyfriend and I have sex," she said.
"I promise you who are threatening me with making public my private life and demanding me to leave the country, that I will sacrifice myself to defend my rights and the rights of others and I will do everything to send those who have filmed and released these videos to jail for many years."
Eka Gigauri, head of the civil rights and policy advocacy group, Transparency International Georgia, says the blackmailing scandal had been anticipated.
"Everybody expected it would happen - that these types of videos would be released before the elections and would be about the private lives of active individuals, political party members, especially from the opposition," Gigauri said.
Georgia's political leadership has been quick to condemn the leaks.
"Sex and having a sex life are nothing to be ashamed of," President Giorgi Margvelashvili said in a statement.
"I address those dark forces, who intend to blackmail our population and our society: we will find each of you and you will not be able to frighten and terrorise people."
Five people have subsequently been arrested in connection with possessing, or intending to share sex tapes.