DFWatch staff 
By Dave Bloss and Nino Bakradze
OCCRP
Former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is now claiming he lost more than $US500 million due to mismanagement by Credit Suisse Bank and by directors of an offshore asset fund he controlled.
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s ambassador to Italy, Kakha Sikharulidze, says the Georgian breakaway region Abkhazia will not be allowed to open a cultural institute in Rome.
The planned Abkhaz Cultural Institute in Rome is an initiative by the de facto Ministry of Foreign Affairs
‘Visa liberalisation for Georgia is not a distant matter,’ the German chancellor Angela Merkel stated during a joint conference with the Georgian prime minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Berlin on 15 June.
TBILISI, DFWatch–Former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili on Tuesday testified that ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered the beating of a parliament member to make an example of what would happen to others if they dared openly criticize him.
TBILISI, DFWatch–The United Arab Emirates has signed a contract to buy military equipment worth USD 32 million from the Georgian state-owned company Delta.
Delta’s former director Ucha Dzodzuashvili said the first batch of equipment
TBILISI, DFWatch–A Georgian businessman may open the first ever McDonald’s restaurant in rival Armenia, Sputnik Armenia reports.
The news agency reports that the opening of the first of the chain’s restaurants in Armenia was decided at a meeting
TBILISI, DFWatch–Two Georgians were detained on Saturday by officers of the Russian FSB’s border service patrolling the perimeter of the breakaway region South Ossetia.
Roin Zautashvili and his son Giorgi were detained for border violation in the village Bershueti
TBILISI, DFWatch–The European Union once again failed to reach an agreement on abolishing visas for Georgian citizens who want to enter the Schengen area.
