In 1185, Georgian nobles headed by Abulasan, Catholicos Mikel Marianidze[2] and Rusudan, daughter of Demetre I arranged a marriage of Prince Yury with Queen Tamar of Georgia.

As her husband, he commanded, in 1186–1187, a Georgian army which successfully raided the Seljuk possessions of Rüm in the west and the Eldiguzids in Arran in the east.

[5] Yury allied himself with a powerful party of Georgian nobles led by Vardan Dadiani, Guzan Abulasanisdze and Botso Jaqeli, and returned to lead a revolt against Tamar in 1191.

Tamar's marriage to the Rus prince Yuri became a subject of two resonant prose works in modern Georgia.

[8] In 2002, a satyrical short-story The First Russian (პირველი რუსი) penned by the young Georgian writer Lasha Bughadze and focused on a frustrated wedding night of Tamar and Yuri outraged many conservatives and triggered a nationwide controversy, including heated discussions in the media, the Parliament of Georgia and the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church.