DFWatch staff 
TBILISI, December 18 – Georgia’s President Mikheil Kavelashvili met Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Thursday. The two sides talked about closer cooperation and prepared for upcoming talks on trade and economy. Kavelashvili’s press service said the leaders discussed deepening ties in political, economic, technological and cultural areas during a one-on-one meeting at the … Read more
TBILISI, December 18 – Georgia’s government is negotiating with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over new financing for the country’s logistics and railway sector. On December 17, Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili and Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili met in Tbilisi with World Bank South Caucasus Regional Director Rolande Pryce and Anders Pettersson, … Read more
TBILISI, December 18 – Protests resumed Wednesday evening on Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi, despite verbal warnings by police the day before to adhere to new, stricter rules for public assemblies. The rally marked the 385th consecutive day of protest near parliament, with demonstrators again demanding new parliamentary elections and the release of people detained … Read more
TBILISI, December 17 – Georgia’s ruling party has sharply rejected a new European Union document that says the country’s accession process has effectively stalled. Opposition figures argue the assessment reflects political reality on the ground. The conclusions were adopted on December 16 after a meeting of the EU Council on enlargement, chaired by Denmark. The … Read more
TBILISI, December 16 – Georgia’s parliament has voted to extend the operation of a duty free shop located outside the country’s border zone, keeping it open until January 1, 2028. Non-border duty free outlets were supposed to phased out on January 1, 2026, but lawmakers approved the extension as part of amendments to the Customs … Read more
TBILISI, December 16 – The European Parliament used its top human rights award ceremony on Tuesday to honor newspaper founder Mzia Amaghlobeli and her Belarusian colleague Andrzej Poczobut. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said Amaghlobeli and Poczobut embody courage, as she spoke during the Sakharov Prize award event in Strasbourg. Metsola said the Parliament would … Read more
TBILISI, December 16 – Tbilisi residents can now use a city-run service to remove bulky household waste, but it comes at a price, BPN reports. Until February this year, getting rid of construction debris, old furniture, green waste or other large household items was not handled by the city’s cleaning service. Residents had to hire … Read more
TBILISI, December 16 – Lawmakers in Georgia are clashing over whether to open a special investigative commission to review how police handled mass protests last year, including what was put in water cannons used to disperse crowds. The push is coming from the For Georgia faction of former prime minister Giorgi Gakharia. The faction has … Read more
TBILISI, December 16 – Heavy transport vehicles are queueing at the Upper Lars border crossing between Georgia and Russia, with long lines of trucks reportedly standing put on the North Ossetian side. According to figures cited by the Russian business daily Kommersant, around 2,500 heavy trucks are currently waiting to cross the border. Of those, … Read more
TBILISI, December 15 – Georgia’s Orthodox Church has suspended the rights of Father Dorote, a well-known cleric, to conduct priestly services. The decision quickly drew cricism from former president Salome Zourabichvili. The Patriarchate’s public relations service said Monday that Dorote, a cleric at Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, has been stripped of the right to perform … Read more