An ally of Adjara strongman Aslan Abashidze, she left politics as Mikheil Saakashvili came to power following the Rose Revolution and as the new authorities came down on her family business over alleged tax evasion, leading to the controversial closure of Iberia TV.
During that time, she led two highly-controversial visits to Moscow, before leaving the party in 2018 after accusing it of cooperating with the authorities just as Omega Group was once again facing financial pressure from the government.
Both she and her husband Zaza Okuashvili were the financial powers behind Aslan Abashidze, who ruled over the Black Sea autonomous republic as an authoritarian, often defying the central government.
The new government of Mikheil Saakashvili that came out of the revolution set out a campaign against corruption and in February 2004, the Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation against Omega Group for alleged large-scale illegal cigarette import and accused the company of 12 million GEL in tax evasion, allegations that Chkheidze denied as being politically motivated and targeting the business empire's media holdings, which included at the time Iberia TV, Media News, and the New Epoch newspaper.
[8] Nato Chkheidze joined the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia (APG), a far-right and pro-Russian party, ahead of the 2016 parliamentary elections, and became one of its largest financial contributors.
The APG justified the visit as an attempt to restore ties and work toward conflict resolution in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, although the Georgian government had not authorized the trip.
[20] Seeking reelection, she joined State for the People (SfP), a minor opposition party led by opera singer Paata Burchuladze that merged into the United National Movement's Strength Is in Unity coalition ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections, becoming a large financial backer of UNM.
[23] In 13th position on the UNM's electoral list (the highest-ranking SfP member and replacing the potential candidacy of Paata Burchuladze himself), she nonetheless won a seat in Parliament.
[27] Nato Chkheidze has been a strong proponent of increasing the social welfare system, proposing the distribution of apartments to poor families, funding municipal clinics across the country, and lowering the retirement age.
[33] A staunch conservative, Nato Chkheidze's comments in 2019 over the appointment of Maia Tskitishvili as Minister of Infrastructure (stating such a ministry would be "too much of a burden" for a woman) raised much criticism for women's rights groups.
Following the death of a television cameraman during the 2021 anti-LGBTQ riots, she led a protest in the session hall of Parliament along with fellow MPs Tina Bokuchava and Ana Natsvlishvili, taking over the Speaker's chair and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili.