DFWatch staff 
TBILISI, DFWatch–Imedi TV, one of Georgia’s largest TV stations, has bought GDS, a smaller company linked with billionaire and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Imedi confirmed that it had purchased 100 percent of shares in the broadcasting company
TBILISI, DFWatch–The plan to extend visa-free entry into Schengen to more than 3 million citizens of the former Soviet republic of Georgia passed another hurdle today, as the EU’s parliament approved the plan with a clear majority.
At a plenary session the 751 member assembly session endorsed
TBILISI, DFWatch–A Georgian volunteer soldier in Ukraine is looking for political asylum in Ukraine, as he believes his life’s in danger if he returns to his home country Georgia.
Former Vice Colonel Gia Tsertsvadze is wanted in Russia for a murder in 2003. Recently
TBILISI, DFWatch–A working group within the Georgian parliament on Monday proposed to establish a new agency under the State Security Service to monitor telephone and internet communications, as well as conduct video and audio eavesdropping.
TBILISI, DFWatch–Two Mi-24 military helicopters with a combined crew of at least four crashed on Friday in North Kivu province near the border with Rwanda and Uganda, authorities reported on Monday.
Tbilisi based military magazine Arsenal wrote that
TBILISI, DFWatch–Hundreds of people protested outside the Defense Ministry on Monday against a mass layoff affecting over two thousand people, demanding fair treatment and respect for labor regulations.
Protesters demand to get their jobs back and claim the ministry
TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has carried out its biggest layoff ever, as more than two thousands employees were dismissed on Monday.
Both military and civilian personnel were affected by the mass layoff.
The ministry explained the firings
TBILISI, DFWatch–Thirty fire fighters in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi are trying to extinguish a massive fire that broke out Monday morning at a shopping mall near the city’s central railway station. The blaze has spread to surrounding buildings and engulfed
TBILISI, DFWatch–Authorities in Abkhazia have closed Nabakevi and Otobaya border crossings connecting the breakaway region to Georgia proper.
The closing of the two checkpoints was announced by Lasha Tsaava, head of the legal department of the de facto
TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian president on Friday pardoned five former defense ministry officials who were convicted of embezzlement in a politically charged case.
The release of the five from prison Friday evening concludes one of the most significant