DFWatch staff 
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia is getting rid of its Soviet era Su-25 attack aircraft, and will instead rely on military helicopters and drones, the country’s defense minister said.
Su-25 is a severely outdated aircraft which requires spare parts that are produced in Russia,
TBILISI, DFWatch–South Ossetia’s de facto authorities have declared the election for a new leader of the separatist region valid.
According to latest news, assembly speaker Anatoly Bibilov is in the lead. He has already declared victory, but it is still not known whether he will get more than 50 percent,
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili on Friday slammed the governing GD party for dragging its feet on the way to further democratic reforms and claimed there is a ‘crisis’ in the justice system.
The president launched the broadside during
TBILISI, DFWatch–A false bomb alert caused a bridge close to a restaurant district in Tbilisi to be evacuated Wednesday afternoon.
Passers-by noticed a suspicious suitcase on the sidewalk of Metekhi Bridge at around 6pm.
Police sealed off the tourist destination,
TBILISI, DFWatch–Unknown assailants brutally beat a former interior ministry official in Tbilisi Monday morning.
The two masked men assaulted Gela Khvedelidze, a former deputy interior minister, close to his home in the center of Tbilisi, as he was leaving his flat.
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s embattled opposition TV company Rustavi 2 has lost control over its web domain and has had to switch to a different address to stay online.
In a statement posted online on its new address, Rustavi 2 blamed former owner David Dvali
TBILISI, DFWatch–A former vice speaker of parliament in Georgia has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Rusudan Kervalishvili (62), who served as vice speaker of parliament in 2008-2012 representing the National Movement, was detained inside the courtroom after the verdict.
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia passed a law against discrimination three years ago, and in return the European Union gave its citizens visa-free travel to Europe. But the local human rights watchdog now says the anti-discrimination law is not being fully implemented.
Open Society Foundations criticizes the Hungarian government and accuses it of trying to silence academic freedom by proposing a law against internationally funded NGOs, which will make it ‘impossible’ for the Central European University in Budapest to operate.
