Netgazeti

News and analysis on Georgia, the Caucasus region, and beyond | Based in Tbilisi 🇬🇪

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

🥊 Georgian Dream supporter, MMA fighter announces a new movement targeting “foreign-funded groups.” Critics warn it could deepen polarisation and hostility, while Georgian Dream MPs describe it as a “natural reaction.”

▶️Read: https://t.co/jsk5rQV2NS
#Georgia #TerrorInGeorgia

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

🗣️"My goal isn't to insult Bidzina [Ivanishvili]. Bidzina insults himself," citizen Nodar Tsitsriashvili shortly before he was detained.
He joined the protest by holding the banner reading "Is Bidzina a di*ck?Yes. No." as an act of solidarity with the 10 people detained yesterday

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

🚨 Arrests over handwritten protest poll “Is Bidzina a d*ck? Yes. No.” continue.

❌Another citizen was detained on July 27 in front of #Tbilisi City Council building.
❌On July 26, 10 people were detained over the same protest act.

Read: https://t.co/t3LcMG05A7
#TerrorInGeorgia

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

🚨 10 people were detained in #Tbilisi over a handwritten yes-or-no question featuring the name "Bidzina" — days after journalist Vakho Sanaia was jailed over Facebook posts deemed insulting to GD members.

➡️ https://t.co/x4Zh2FAlnl

#GeorgiaProtest
#Georgia
#TerrorInGeorgia

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

🟥 The #EU has added #Georgia's Kulevi oil refinery to its latest sanctions package over its processing of Russian crude oil. The ban is to enter into force in six month.
#Sanctions #EUSanctions #Russia

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

🟥 What Can a Sarcastic Facebook Post Cost You? In #Georgia, It Can Land a Journalist in Detention

Georgia's latest crackdown on social media and freedom of speech explained in less than 3 minutes 👇

▶️https://t.co/78MiO3tnj5

#Facebook #TerrorInGeorgia #GeorgiaProtests

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

🟥 Journalist Vakho Sanaia was detained outside his home. He has become the first journalist in #Georgia to be ordered into administrative detention over social media posts.
Read more: https://t.co/zbnn1GVa0I

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

⭕️ Journalist Vakho Sanaia has been ordered to serve 14 days of detention over Facebook posts, following a case brought against him over alleged insults directed at public officials.

▶️ https://t.co/zbnn1GVa0I
#Georgia #PressFreedom #FreedomOfSpeech

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

🔴Journalist and @FormulaGe anchor Vakho Sanaia sentenced to 14 days of administrative detention over Facebook posts.

❌ Sanaia was previously fined 6,000 GEL for a sarcastic post mocking a newly established unit that monitors social media for profanity and initiates administrative proceedings. The post ironically urged people "not to call Shalva Papuashvili and Lado Bozhadze d*cks."

❌ After being fined, Sanaia published further posts about the case, joking that the judge's ruling implied Papuashvili and Bozhadze were, in fact, d*cks. Those follow-up posts became the basis for a new administrative case, which has now resulted in a 14-day detention.

#Georgia #RepressionsInGeorgia

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

🟥 What Happened in Telavi, #Georgia?

▶️ Women who came from #Russia as tourists claim one of them was physically assaulted for speaking Russian

▶️ Georgian wedding guests say Russian-speaking tourists insulted them and provoked the conflict.

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

⭕️Georgia's media regulator has fined critical TV channel @FormulaGe 5,000 GEL under censorship-style broadcasting regulations.

It is the third such case in four months. The fine comes as Formula faces a deep financial crisis, having recently cancelled its morning shows.
https://t.co/YsOVdA9zor

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

🟥Critical TV channel @FormulaGe could face another fine or even the suspension of its broadcasting licence for using terms such as "Dream' government" and similar expressions.

Georgia's Communications Commission is set to consider the case on 17 July.
▶️https://t.co/sQx6e7IJSv

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

🔴🇬🇪opposition politician @Zuraja has been taken to hospital after being hit by a car while riding a scooter.
🗣️He said he suffered bruises, grazes and a concussion, but no fractures
🚨Police have been informed and are expected to retrieve CCTV footage.
➡️https://t.co/J5kFZS0vzt

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

🟥 After years of delays and political controversy, #Georgia has unveiled a new model for developing the Anaklia deep-sea port.
🔍Is this finally the breakthrough the project needs — or another geopolitical recalculation?
💢Here's what has changed, why it matters, and what it means for Georgia's strategic future.
🧲https://t.co/sYIw8Y25d6

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

On June 22, a Tbilisi court sentenced eight additional defendants in the October 4 case to five years in prison. The case, which involves 64 defendants and has been divided into five separate trials, has already resulted in three verdicts, with two more expected this week.

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

🟥 Solidarity from Georgian prisoner of conscience Mzia Amaglobeli for political prisoner @Helenkhosh, whose lawyers spoke this week about the sharp deterioration of her health.

“I didn’t have Imedi TV’s contact information, so I’ll tell Batumelebi/Netgazeti instead. Hopefully no one will accuse me of bias.

Jokes aside, it has been a difficult week, a heavy one. Each passing day seems to draw us deeper into an even harsher reality. Nothing is really unexpected anymore, and perhaps I shouldn’t be worried at this point, but I can’t help it. I cannot take calmly the news of new arrests, violence, indifference, and countless forms of repression.

It is painful to hear that Elene Khoshtaria now walks with a cane, or that she struggles even to hold a pen. It is good that her lawyers have drawn attention to her health.

Here, in this confined space, one’s sensitivity to injustice becomes so acute that everything a person needs simply to live starts to feel insignificant.

What I find difficult to understand is this: in a country where everyone — including doctors and hospital owners themselves — goes abroad not only for treatment but even for medical diagnoses, how can anyone be offended by questions about a prisoner’s health and the plan for treating them under prison conditions? Especially when Elene is one of those people who, even here in prison, does not demand not only what she needs, but not even what she is entitled to.

She has no need for manipulation.

Even I know that before her imprisonment, Elene was getting by with the help of painkillers. The regime knows better than anyone that her health was bound to worsen and become more complicated in prison.

It will be difficult for them to ignore Elene’s condition, after all, she is under 24-hour video surveillance.

I do not think Elene needs words of encouragement from anyone, including me. Still, I want to tell her that she is not alone. Just a shout away from her is another woman — me — who believes in the same ideals and who, like her, will fight to the very end for a democratic and European #Georgia.”

#RepressionsInGeorgia
#GeorgiaProtests

https://t.co/BC5XODOG2k

[ბათუმელები • Batumelebi.ge @Batumelebi_ge]

📷 Russia, Moscow, June 18 — A fire broke out at the Kapotnya oil refinery following a drone attack. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin acknowledged that “several drones managed to reach the Kapotnya oil refinery” and reported “minor damage” at the Sadovod market. 📷 According to the Russian state news agency TASS, this was the largest attempted drone attack on Moscow in the past two years. 📷 Video: Telegram #RussiaUkraineWar #Russia

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

⚠️ "Khoshtaria suffers from severe joint pain, mobility issues, sometimes preventing her from writing and forcing her to use a walking stick", - iShota Tutberidze, lawyer for imprisoned opposition leader @Helenkhosh reported.

🟥 https://t.co/poBWXs8Ns1

#RepressionsInGeorgia

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

France hosts G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains
Photo: European Press Photo Agency

[Netgazeti @netgazeti]

⭕️Recently released Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut has called for the release of fellow #SakharovPrize laureate Mzia Amaglobeli, who remains in prison.
Speaking in @Europarl_EN, Poczobut said:“Journalists should be free and not in prison”.
▶️https://t.co/8hsyUyNXA9