Auditoria, a Tbilisi-based bookshop, has cancelled a scheduled appearance by Russian anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky after a video surfaced of him saying Georgia had consisted of little more than ‘stone huts’ and sheep before the Soviet Union. Drobyshevsky also said that since Georgia’s independence, ‘everything has just been falling apart’. The lecture was scheduled to take place on 22 November. In the video that led to the lecture’s cancellation, Drobyshevsky claimed that Tbilisi’s entire centre had been built during the Soviet period. ‘All of Georgia was built in Soviet times. Before that, there were just some huts, stone ones, with sheep and things like that. Everything was built in Soviet times — Soviet occupation. And since then, everything has just been falling apart, everything is covered in spit and scribbles, everything is in a terrible state. […] Well, in Soviet times, there was a strategy for precisely improving life in the regions,’ Drobyshevsky said . Drobyshevsky is a candidate of biological sciences and an associate professor at the Department of Anthropology at Lomonosov Moscow State University, where his research interests include human evolution, hominoid systematics, and palaeoneurology. He is also a regular public lecturer and has an active YouTube channel. He is one of the prominent figures behind the Russian science education platform Antropogenez.ru. The Ukrainian website Myrotvorets, which describes Drobyshevsky as an ‘anti-Ukrainian propagandist’, alleges that he illegally entered Russian-occupied Crimea and conducted archaeological excavations there. The website also cites videos in which he allegedly makes statements supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea and expressing views about the war in Donbas. Auditoria, located in Tbilisi’s Vera district, was established as a cultural venue and book bar offering regular intellectual and cultural events for a Russian-speaking audience. Its programme includes scientific and cultural lectures, book club discussions, and poetry evenings. Drobyshevsky had been invited as part of this programme. The venue was established after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In August 2024, its co-founder, biologist Aleksei Sivukhin, told Novaya Gazeta Europe that it had quickly become ‘a gathering point for Russian-speaking expats’. Auditoria announced the cancellation of the lectures, saying the decision was made out of respect for the country in which it operates and in consideration of its responsibility towards its audience. In its statement, the bookshop explained that it had offered to organise an interview with a Russian-language media outlet in Georgia to give Drobyshevsky an opportunity to comment on his remarks and clarify his position. Auditoria also emphasised its opposition to harassment and attempts to disregard a person’s professional achievements because of their public statements. ‘The cancellation of the planned appearances does not mean that we are calling on people to boycott Stanislav Drobyshevsky or asking other organisers to take similar action’, the statement read. Meanwhile, Drobyshevsky told Russian outlet RBC that he was unaware that his lectures in Georgia had been cancelled. ‘I don't even know that they cancelled them. Well, thank God, I’ll have a day off. Apparently, the truth really does hurt someone. Democracy and freedom of speech, European-style’, he said. He also suggested that those who had opposed his appearance could instead attend his lectures in Russia.