Nato Chkheidze is a Georgian politician. She served as a member of Parliament from 1999-2004 and since 2020. In 2012, she joined the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia, a far-right political party with links to Russia and was re-elected to the Parliament of Georgia in 2016. During that time, she headed two highly controversial visits to Moscow, before quitting. She is considered to be one of Georgia’s most Kremlin-friendly politicians.
Nato Chkheidze entered the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia (APG) and became one of its largest financial supporters. The party has been generally characterised as pro-Russian. Moreover, the party has been blamed for being financed by the Kremlin. She was elected to Parliament, third on the party’s electoral list. She became the APG faction’s vice-chairwoman. In Parliament, she performed as vice-chair of the powerful Legal Affairs Committee and sat on the Constitutional Commission of 2016-2018 that rewrote the Constitution, transforming Georgia into a parliamentary republic.
On July 12, 2017, Nato Chkheidze was one of three APG constituents of Parliament to lead a highly controversial visit to Russia, having met with Duma leader Leonid Kalashnikov and members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation at a moment when Russia and Georgia maintained no diplomatic ties since the 2008 Russo-Georgia War. Followed by fellow party executives Giorgi Lomia and Ada Marshania, she visited Russia once more on October 4 of that same year. The APG explained the visit as an attempt to restore relations and work toward dispute resolution in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, although the Georgian government had not authorized the visit.
