DFWatch staff 
The NATO was founded in April of 1949 by Washington treaty, and at a time aimed to prevent Soviet aggression in Europe. In 21st century, the NATO’s role and agenda has changed. But the Alliance remains a deterrent against growing Russian threat in Europe. Ani Chkhikvadze, reporter for VOA’s Georgian Service, set down with Dr. … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Up to 40 people were injured in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge Sunday as locals clashed with riot police over a hydropower plant. The confrontation started in the village Birkiani after police units entered the gorge to protect company employees who are working on the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the river Alazani. Locals have … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia has named the plenary session hall of the parliament building after the country’s first president since independence. Parliament’s decision on Tuesday to name the hall after Zviad Gamsakhurdia seems to be the outcome of a rivalry between Georgia’s top political forces that are trying to woo the thousands of Georgians who revere the … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Three workers were seriously injured on Tuesday in central Tbilisi after falling from a building during construction work on a new luxury complex owned by the billionaire and former Georgian prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. The three injured construction workers, who are aged 19 to 21, have all been hospitalized with fractures and other injuries. … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian Olympic champion Lasha Talakhadze broke three world records at the European Weightlifting Championships in Georgia on Saturday. All three records broken by ‘the strongest man in the world’ were set by himself. The 25-year-old Georgia only needed four lifts to set records on snatch, clean and jerk, and total, and gave up the … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–The breakaway region South Ossetia was left without Internet Tuesday due to damage to a fiber-optic cable. It is so far unknown what caused the damage to the cable connecting the separatist republic to the outside world. The cable belongs to the Russian company Gazprom. Local mobile operator Megafon-Osetia claims the Internet outage is … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Far-right activists in Georgia are uniting to form a new political party and run in the local and national elections, emulating Marine Le Pen’s Front National. One of the proposals of the new party will be to note a person’s ethnicity in the Georgian passport. Georgian March leader Sandro Bregadze said on Friday that … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Breakaway authorities in Abkhazia plan to lift its moratorium on capital punishment in 2020 as tougher sentences are brought in against drug crime. The de facto parliament of breakaway Abkhazia has adopted a new law which imposes tougher punishments for selling large quantities of drugs, including life sentence and even death penalty. The law … Read more
Georgia showed the most significant drop in incarceration rate among Council of Europe member countries between 2008 and 2019. However, it is the second among countries with particularly high incarceration rates just after Russia, according to new statistics released on Tuesday by the CoE on the situation in European prisons covering the period until end-January … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–The success of an opposition candidate in Ukraine’s presidential elections has given Georgia’s former leader Mikheil Saakashvili new hope of making a comeback in Kiev politics. After losing power in his home country, Saakashvili re-launched his career as politician in Ukraine, serving first as governor of Ukraine’s strategically important Odessa Oblast for 18 months, … Read more