Site icon Civil.ge

The Dispatch – May 5/6: Brave New World

Peculiar Easter Lawbreaker Stories – Amnesty Bill Booby-Trapped – Cartographer, Journalists Attacked – Church Fears Robots – Saakashvili in Ego-measuring Contest with Navalny – Georgia in DIA’s World Threat Assessment – Controversy ahead of Tbilisi Fashion Week

Greetings from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital that slowly wakes up from its Easter hibernation as thousands of its residents return from the countryside, having spent holidays with their families. The Dispatch and Nini, your operator, are here to update you about all the relevant and bizarre developments that unfolded in this period. 

EASTER TALES

(ANOTHER) AMNESTY TRAP

THE HATE YOU GIVE

CYBERPUNK!

HEROES WORK ALONE In his May 3 interview with Deutsche Welle’s Russian language edition, Ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili threw his own “we’re more popular than Jesus” quote. Saakashvili predicted inevitable regime change in Georgia as soon as this year. As for the journalist’s question on whether he risks being treated by Georgian authorities the same way as government critics are treated in Russia, he claimed he enjoyed “crazy support” in his homeland, unlike Navalny, who is a “hero” but… apparently not quite matching the stature of Misha.

AVENGERS The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency published a Worldwide Threat Assessment report on April 29, outlining, among others, regional issues. “Georgian, Ukrainian, and Azerbaijani security cooperation with NATO partners and other external backers reflect an increasingly challenging environment for Russia to exert security dominance” despite Kremlin’s attempt to “remain the preponderant security provider in what it calls the “near abroad” the document reads.

Also in the news: 

BAD FASHION

That’s the full lid for today. Celebrate the bizarre and the curious in Georgia’s politics with us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!