Georgia will switch to a monetary compensation plan with Gazprom in exchange for allowing transport of Russian natural gas to Armenia. After long negotiations, the Georgian government made “an optional” decision and accepted the offer from Gazprom regarding transition to a monetary form of payment for the transit of…
The General Director of the Georgian opposition channel Rustavi2, Nika Gvaramia, was attacked on January 7 while dining together with friends in a restaurant in Tbilisi. “I buried my father today and I was feeling depressed. My friends invited me to restaurant Dining Room in order to make me feel…
An unprecedented act of civil disobedience took place on New Year’s eve in Tbilisi, Georgia. Leaders of the center-right party “Girchi,” along with several dozen civil activists, planted cannabis seeds on-air on the evening of 31 December, intentionally breaching the current law and facing 12 years imprisonment, according to…
US Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Amy Klobuchar arrived in Tbilisi for a two-day visit. “We will continue to do everything possible to support the independence, freedom and territorial integrity of Georgia. We will strongly urge our colleagues toward more meaningful and stronger sanctions against Russia because of their…
Russia remains open to working with Georgia on a visa free regime; this approach should be strengthened in 2017, said Russian Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin today. “As for the Russian side, President Vladimir Putin has quite clearly stated that the possibility of introducing a visa-free regime with Georgia on…
The Georgian national currency, the Lari, has been steadily devalued over the last two years. This year, its 21st year of existence, the Lari hit record depreciation levels several times, including on December 18, reaching 2.68 GEL against the USD. Several factors caused the dramatic depreciation of GEL according to…
During the eight years of the Obama administration, the transformation of former Ottoman territory has been sweeping and complete. The new Russia/Iran/Shia axis now controls a wide swath of the Middle East from the Mediterranean to the Iranian-Afghan border. One would be hard pressed to perceive, from today’s facts on…