● The Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Ben Cardin: “The ruling party in Georgia has introduced a bill that would repeal LGBTQ+ rights. This would violate the right to freedom of assembly and further undermine confidence in the Georgian government’s commitment to democracy.”
● “If anyone needs to reassess relations between Georgia and Ukraine, it is the Ukrainian government,” said Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, commenting on the statements of Ukraine’s temporary chargé d’affaires in Georgia Mykhailo Kharishin, who explained the reasons for the recall of the Ukrainian ambassador from Georgia in March last year. Kharishin explained to journalists the reasons for the recall of the Ukrainian ambassador from Georgia in March last year: “At that time, a presidential decree was being prepared to appoint a new ambassador, and suddenly the Georgian head of government started making ambiguous statements.” Kharishin added: “It seems that someone is trying to damage Georgian-Ukrainian relations.” Kobakhidze reiterated that “the Ukrainian government called on the Georgian government to open a second front.”
● Justice Minister Rati Bregadze: “The opposition alliance before the parliamentary elections in October is a club of retired terrorists. They are gathering the scattered parts of the former ‘United National Movement’ (the ruling party under Mikheil Saakashvili), but they will be as ‘successful’ as trying to create something new from the fragments of an exploded grenade.”
● According to the Liberty Institute, in June 2024, the Georgian government purchased Russian EFKO oil for the Georgian army without issuing a tender. The supplier was the Georgian Distribution Marketing Company, whose three shareholders – Gocha Darchiashvili, Uta Maziashvili and Vladimir Darchiashvili – each donated 60,000 lari (about $22,500) to the ruling Georgian Dream party in 2017.
● Companies owned by Jeyran Omanadze, a member of the Tskaltubo City Council and a member of the ruling party, have won tenders worth a total of 45 million GEL (about 16.7 million USD), according to the non-governmental organization Waste Detector. The organization reports that 27 million GEL have already been transferred to the accounts of the MP’s companies.
● According to Transparency International Georgia, the Ministry of Justice has rented premises for the new judicial building in Batumi from a company owned by Giorgi Chkonia, a businessman with close ties to the government and a major donor to the ruling party. Chkonia owns shares in 20 companies and heads three of them. He was actively involved in public procurement and earned 335,638,719 GEL (about $125.25 million) from 2011 to 2023.
● Culture Minister Tea Tsulukiani: Oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is considered the country’s shadow ruler, “was, is and will remain after October 27 (after the parliamentary elections) the person who ensures stability and peace in Georgia.” She dismissed the report of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which claimed that Ivanishvili had financed his election campaign with money from Russian activities, as a “pseudo-study”.
● Georgia has taken a 20-year loan of 30 million euros from France to complete the water supply system project in Khashuri and surrounding settlements, the Finance Ministry said.
● Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has been invited to participate in the 4th Summit of the Crimean Platform, which will be held in Kyiv on September 11.
● The upcoming football match between Georgia and the Czech Republic on September 7 remains controversial. The match was originally scheduled to take place at Tbilisi’s main stadium, Dynamo, but was then moved to the smaller Mikheil Meskhi Stadium. The Georgian Football Federation claims Dynamo is too worn out, but sports circles believe the authorities are punishing businessman Roman Pipia, who manages the stadium on a leasehold basis, for his open criticism of the “foreign agent” law. Read more here
In the photo: Tbilisi Dynamo Stadium, drone view.
