● The Ministry of Defense is conducting the traditional inter-agency military exercise “Partner 2024”, but for the first time without Western partners. Last year’s exercise was attended by the United States and Lithuania. The US Defense Department said that US participation was postponed “as part of the review of bilateral relations between the two countries due to false accusations made by the Georgian government against the United States and other Western countries.” Representatives of the Georgian government have repeatedly claimed that the United States is ruled by a certain “world war party” and that it passed a “foreign agents” law despite repeated warnings from Washington. However, the Georgian Defense Minister said he “cannot understand” the US decision not to take part in the exercise. Read more here
● “Bidzina Ivanishvili (oligarch and honorary chairman of the ruling party) wants to turn Georgia into an oasis for Russia and China to escape international sanctions, as evidenced by his handing over the Anaklia port construction project to a Chinese company. This means Georgia’s movement towards Europe will slow down and new generations will have to wait even longer to live in a European democracy,” said Mark Mullen, former head of Transparency International Georgia, in an interview with the Georgian edition of Radio Liberty.
● Georgia said goodbye to the great violinist Liana Isakadze. She was 78 years old and conducted orchestras in Austria, Finland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland, France and Spain. Her name is included in the encyclopedia of the Cambridge International Biographical Centre’s “2,000 outstanding musicians of the 20th century.”
● Georgian director Giorgi Sikharulidze’s film Panopticum won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It is a Georgian, French, Italian and Romanian co-production set in Georgia in 2018. The protagonist is 16-year-old Sandro, who is struggling with his sometimes radical search for his identity within traditional and modern ideologies and cultural norms.
In Tbilisi, a Globo delivery man delivering an order was assaulted by several people and shot with what appeared to be an airsoft gun. The young man underwent surgery at a hospital and an investigation has been launched, but there have been no reports of arrests in connection with the incident.
