for Human Rights, who asked the Parliamentary Ethics Council to study them, as well as by Public Defender Nino Lomjaria. Military service Megrelishvili is opposed to the compulsory military service in Georgia and favors its complete abolition. He is one of the founders of the so-called Church of Biblical Freedom, an pseudo-religious organization created by Girchi activists to help young men avoid military service by granting them the status of "priest". Though the Church has been criticized, he has in return criticized the idea of granting the Georgian Orthodox Church a monopoly on avoiding conscription. Foreign policy Vakhtang Megrelishvili considers himself to be a "pro-American politician" and supports Georgia's integration in the European Union. He has favored more U.S. political intervention to mediate political crises in the country. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he backed the proposal of Georgia joining international sanctions and criticized the Georgian government for refusing to do so, comparing the Irakli Gharibashvili administration's decision to Belarus's alliance with Russia. He has also been critical of the Georgian government's rhetoric against European Union member states and has instead favored exchanging reform ideas with Ukraine on both countries' EU integration paths. References Living people 1972 births Members of the Parliament of Georgia Libertarians from Georgia (country) 21st-century politicians from Georgia (country) New Political Center — Girchi politicians