A small, but vocal contingent led by Sofia and her chief adviser, Prince David Machutadze, advocated a break with Russia.
Furthermore, Sofie expelled Mingrelian military posts from the shores of Lake Paliastomi and replaced them with stronger Gurian patrols, opening a line of communications with Poti and causing the Russian commander-in-chief Ivan Paskevich to forewarn her of the consequences.
Paskevich gave the regent two weeks to fulfill her promise and ordered General Karl Hesse to move into Guria with two battalions, ostensibly for cooperation with the Gurian forces.
[6] On the night of 1 to 2 October 1828, Sofie with her son David and the eldest daughter Ekaterina, accompanied by loyal nobles, fled Guria to Kobuleti.
[8] In the spring of 1829, Sofia, from her base at the Kintrishi glade, close to Guria, issued proclamations to the Gurians calling on them to resist the Russians and defend their rightful sovereign.
[8] Paskevich sent her several letters promising amnesty for her and her followers and respect for David's right to the princely title, if she broke with the Ottomans and immediately returned to Guria.
On 25 January 1832, through the intercession of Paskevich's successor in the Caucasus, Baron Rosen, the Gurian exiles were granted amnesty by Tsar Nicholas I and were allowed to their homeland as private citizens.
He was commissioned as a cornet of the Tsesarevich's Ataman Cossack Regiment of the Life Guards and sent to fight the Caucasian mountaineers led by Imam Shamil.