a quarter - million people and “ is functionally an arm of the Kremlin , although it ’s ostensibly a private institution , ” The Observer notes . Many right - wing publications and neoconservative figures have jumped on this story in hopes of trying to tie the Clintons to Russian President Vladimir Putin , the preferred trumped up bogeyman in the U.S. establishment today . Hillary Clinton herself is not directly implicated , just one of her biggest campaign bundlers .
The statement said the same group had come to the neighborhood a month earlier and asked a nearby shopkeeper whether foreigners or members of the lesbian , gay , bisexual , and transgender ( LGBT ) community frequented the cafe . Kiwi Cafe is a counterculture - style gathering place that opened in Tbilisi about a year ago . It is popular with foreigners and employspersonnel.startposition.hiringforeign , English - speaking staff as well as Georgians . On May 29 , the cafe was screening English - language episodes of an American animated , sci - fi sitcom called Rick And Morty when the confrontation began . Customers said the group of rowdy Georgian men entered the cafe as the screening was under way , wearing sausages around their necks and carrying slabs of meat on skewers .