“An icon is something that people pray to. But the icon of Stalin as such does not exist.” This is how the head of the Public Relations Service of the Patriarchate of Georgia, Archpriest Andria Jagmaidze, commented on the appearance of an icon with USSR Secretary General Joseph Stalin in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Tsminda Sameba) in Tbilisi.

“This is an icon of St. Matrona, which was brought a few months ago. And somewhere in the corner there is some historical fact drawn on it - supposedly Stalin came there. That's all. This is very incorrect and targeted propaganda,” said Andria Dzhagmaidze.

It turned out that the icon “Blessed Matrona blesses Joseph Stalin” was donated to the cathedral several months ago by the leaders of the Alliance of Georgian Patriots party, Irma Inashvili and David Tarkhan-Mouravi, and was painted by a Georgian icon painter. Researcher at the Institute for the Study of the Soviet Past SovLab Georgy Kandelaki noted that the icon of Stalin, the initiator of the destruction of Georgian independence, the murderer of thousands of clergy and the author of the deportation of entire peoples, in the Trinity Cathedral is a success of the Russian information war machine.