News from conflict areas in the Caucasus
Georgia offers grants to encourage trade with its breakaway regions
Trade center at Rukhi. (Facebook.) Georgia proposes a new grant program aimed at encouraging trade across the conflict lines within the framework of the peace initiative A Step to a Better Future. […]
Georgian, Ossetian athletes facilitated release of a woman from Tskhinvali jail
Maia Otinashvili (Photo: Goga Aptsiauri, RFE/RL). Several wrestlers and possibly other acting and retired athletes had played a key role in the release of 37 y/o Georgian woman from Tskhinvali prison, the family says, which was confirmed also by Georgia’s State Security Service (SUS). […]
Illegal trade on rise due to dire economic situation, Gali residents say
GALI, DFWatch – The loss of sources of income related to the spread of deadly brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), which has devastated locals’ orchards, urges residents of Gali to return to illegal business of smuggling goods, particularly cigarettes, from the breakaway Abkhazia to Georgia proper. […]
256 Gali youth tried to enroll at Georgian universities, 130 passed exams
Graduates registering for unified national exams 2018 in Tbilisi. (1tv.ge) GALI, DFWatch – 130 residents of breakaway Abkhazia’s Gali district enrolled at universities in Georgia proper this year, the head of Gali Educational Resource Center said to DFWatch. […]
Abkhazia’s de facto prime minister killed in car accident
Gennadi Gagulia. The prime minister of Sokhumi regime was killed in a car accident on the road connecting the capital of breakaway Abkhazia with Russia’s Sochi on Saturday, when he was returning from his trip to Syria. […]
Breakaway authorities step up Russification at schools, kindergartens in predominantly Georgian Akhalgori
Kindergarten in Akhalgori (cominf.org). Akhalgori, DFWatch – The 2018-19 academic year in Akhalgori schools and kindergartens starts on September 5 instead of September 1 and poses dire problems for ethnic Georgian kids and their parents. Despite the fact that ethnic Georgians compose over 55 percent of Akhalgori population, the Tskhinvali regime disbanded the sole Georgian kindergarten in the district in May. […]
Sokhumi regime vice president resigns, declares vendetta to punish offender
Vitali Gabnia. Vice president of breakaway Abkhazia has stepped down after an incident when he was hit by a glass to his head, saying that plans to retaliate in “Abkhazian spirit”. […]
Abkhazia declares Soviet passports invalid
GALI, DFWatch–Sokhumi has declared as invalid passports issued during the Soviet Union, which will cause problems for Georgians living in Abkhazia, many of whom rely on the documents for traveling in and out of the breakaway republic, locals told DFWatch. […]