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Titushky: The Illegitimate and The Vulnerable

  • Writer: J. S. Feral
    J. S. Feral
  • 4 days ago
  • 8 min read

Protesters & Saboteurs

It was the night of December 7, 2024, in Georgia’s capital city, Tbilisi. Despite the winter chill, dozens of protesters gathered in front of Georgia’s Parliament. Young people draped in Georgian flags huddled on benches. Clusters of adults chatted or sang traditional Georgian songs. The woman next to me introduced herself and her boyfriend. They told me they had been to every protest since November. It was the tenth night of consecutive protesting, and the last nine had been cold, long, and violent.

 

I asked what they thought was going to happen. The woman shrugged and made a face. “Nothing,” she said.

 

“Nothing,” I repeated. “But you come out every night?”  

 

The woman shrugged again. “Sorry, I don’t know how to say it. We cannot... not do something.”

 

We continued talking until our conversation was interrupted by the appearance of three men dressed in black. While the men were large and imposing, I didn't think much of them. The woman, however, glared at them. She then took hold of my elbow and led me and her boyfriend to the other side of the street.   

 

“What was that?” I asked.

 

“They cause problems,” the boyfriend said.

 

The rest of the protest seemed to follow the same formula as the night before, with riot police and protesters exchanging tear gas and fireworks. It was not until I got home and checked my phone that I learned the full scope of the night's events.


Protest in Tbilisi, people wearing gas masks. Photo by Ramaz Bluashvili on Pexels.
Protest in Tbilisi, people wearing gas masks. Photo by Ramaz Bluashvili on Pexels.

Around 21:30, in an alleyway near the protest, two men were attacked by a large group of men dressed in black and wearing masks. Both victims required medical treatment for their injuries (Pirveli TV, 2024). In the same area, at about 22:00, a gang of men threw a journalist to the ground and assaulted her cameraman. A few blocks from the journalist, at 22:06, men stormed the headquarters of the opposition. Once inside, they grabbed two opposition leaders, dragged them into the lobby, beat them bloody, and left them lying on the floor. Footage of these events was picked up and reported on by several media outlets, including ПРАВДА and Reuters.


A video taken by a citizen from their window, showing the top of the street where the opposition headquarters is located, was posted and reposted on X by CivilGe. In the video, police can be seen interacting with dozens of men clad in black. The scene gives the impression that the police were working with the men responsible for the attacks. Later, the lack of arrests for the assaults, despite the large police presence, supported the perception of police collusion.

 

News of the attacks was followed by warnings to stay away from the city center in the evenings, effectively discouraging people from protesting. At the same time, articles and posts pointed an accusatory finger at the government, calling the mob of masked men “Titushky”.


The History of Titushky

The term Titushky originated in Ukraine during the EuroMaidan protests. Groups of athletic men in tracksuits disrupted anti-government demonstrations by verbally and physically assaulting protesters. These antics escalated in May of 2013. A group of men surrounded some activists, poured water on them, and spat at them. While filming the event, a journalist was knocked to the ground and repeatedly hit in the head and stomach. Her husband, also a journalist, fell on top of her, shielding her from the worst of the blows. They cried out for help, but nearby police did nothing (REFL, 2013).


Multiple pictures of the attack helped journalists identify one of the assailants as Vadym Titushko (ПРАВДА, 2013). Though Vadym was caught and prosecuted, such attacks continued to happen. When they did, those who perpetrated them were called Titushky.

 

While Titushky is a loose term, there are a few constants in its meaning. Titushky are violent; they are paid and directed by government officials, and often come from vulnerable populations. In the case of the Titushky at Ukraine’s EuroMaidan, the government’s hand was obvious. Not only did Vadym Titushko and dozens of others speak about being paid, but people saw it (ПРАВДА, 2013; Titushko Interview YouTube, 2013). They saw Titushky being brought into Kyiv via buses. They watched them work with the Berkut (riot police), and they witnessed police stand by while they attacked protesters (Barrow, 2014).

 

After the revolution, there were investigations into the Titushky. They concluded that the money that paid for them came from Serhiy Kurchenko, a billionaire with close ties to Yanukovych, the former president (Kyiv Post, 2014). Orders and coordination came from the former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko and were relayed through Viktor Zubrytsky (Kyiv Post, 2014). All of these men have since fled to Russia. Except for Zubrytsky, he ended up in Ukrainian custody. 


Although Vadym’s name is now a slang term for those who take money to protect pro-Russian governments after 2022, Vadym joined Ukraine’s distinguished 72nd Brigade called the “Black Cossacks” (Censon, 2023). Tityshko has spent the last several years fighting the Russian military on the front lines of Ukraine. 


Titushky By Other Names

The use of Titushky is not unique to Georgia or Ukraine. During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, 100 or more men, wearing white shirts, attacked and viciously beat protesters at a train station. The police were absent from the scene for hours, and none of the perpetrators were prosecuted. Later, Reuters reported that a Chinese government official had asked a local town to “chase anti-government protesters away.” For locals, these attacks mirrored those of 2014, when suspected members of the mafia-like organization the Triads attacked participants of the Umbrella protest (BBC, 2019).

 

In a 2025 interview with France 24, University of Belgrade Serbian Politics professor Nebojša Vladisavljević described Titushky in the ongoing Serbian protests:


“In the last few days, we've seen another escalation, which is by the use of the ruling party’s hired gangs, who pose as supporters of the ruling party. You recognise them by kind of being uniformly dressed – they’re in civilian clothes, but you see that they all have black t-shirts, black short pants, black baseball caps, some are hooded – and they go together, some carrying sticks, to guard offices of the ruling party across the country and provoke protesters so that the police would then beat them up.”

 

Central Asia has OBON, which stands for Women Units for Special Purpose. The name is a play on the brutal Russian riot police called OMON. Unlike OMON, OBON members are typically middle-aged to elderly women (Szymanek, 2012). The Uzbekistani OBON is controlled by the National Security Services.


Their members often have backgrounds in sex work or are convicted criminals and have been coerced into the OBON by law enforcement. Whereas in Kyrgyzstan, political leaders from all parties hire OBON and recruit them with the promise of payment (IWPR, 2012).

 

A common OBON tactic is to attack anti-government protesters. When protesters defend themselves, police charge them with abusing women (IWPR, 2012). During Kyrgyzstan's 2010 revolution, 50 women physically attacked human rights activist Abduman Khalipov at his trial. They dragged him outside the courthouse and beat him till he lost consciousness (Радио Азаттык, 2010). At a pro-intergovernmental rally, OBON members dispersed the crowd by being so obnoxious that people left to get away from them (Rossiskaya Gazeta, 2010). 


In part, it is OBON members’ status as women that makes them so effective. Men do not know how to respond to them; it is shameful to fight women and shameful to run from them.

At the same time, it is their status as women that makes them vulnerable to recruitment into the OBON. This cyclical nature is at the core of Titushky worldwide. Ultimately, Titushky defend the status quo that put them in the position to become Titushky.


A Double-Edged Sword

Throughout history, hundreds of regimes have employed Titushky-like tactics. There is no denying their effectiveness; however, they also come with a huge risk. By openly failing to protect citizens, the state’s monopoly on violence slips and along with it, its legitimacy.


Tbilisi protesters react to tear gas. Photo by Ramaz Bluashvili on Pexels.
Tbilisi protesters react to tear gas. Photo by Ramaz Bluashvili on Pexels.

This sentiment was reflected by Georgian citizens confronting police and demanding that they hand over their guns and batons. They argued that if the police will not protect them or their families, they should be given the means to do it themselves. When a government allows citizens to be abused and fails to provide justice, there should be no surprise when citizens take both security and justice into their own hands.

 

After December 7th, Georgian protesters formed a “defense force” (bne, 2024). They roamed the streets and alleyways around the protest, guarding against Titushky. Days later, the government changed tactics. The violence at protests decreased, and the defense force disbanded. While Georgia did not reach the tipping point, the events of December 7th pushed citizens one step closer to mounting a revolution, like the ones in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. Titushky are a double-edged sword, they are just as likely to inspire a revolution as they are to stop one. Any government that uses them may suppress dissent for a while, but in doing so it loses legitimacy and gambles with its own security.       


Bibliography

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