Latest news with #Georgian-Russian
The Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Georgia arrests fugitive ex-aide of ruling party founder
TBILISI: Georgia on Tuesday announced the arrest of the former top aide to the country's richest man and ruling party founder, as his lawyers warned he risked torture after being forcibly returned. Giorgi Bachiashvili used to be the right-hand man to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party, who is widely believed to be the de facto ruler of the mountainous Caucasus nation. Bachiashvili, who once headed the tycoon's Co-Investment Fund, fled Georgia in early March amid mounting legal troubles. He has called his former boss Ivanishvili a 'power-drunk criminal' who 'is trading away the future of our country.' Sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison for alleged embezzlement and money laundering, he has accused Ivanishvili of threatening to 'crush' him in prison. On Tuesday, Georgia's State Security Service said Bachiashvili 'a dual Georgian-Russian national, wanted on an Interpol Red Notice, was arrested on Monday after an anonymous tip placed him near the neutral zone' at the border with Azerbaijan. But Bachiashvili's lawyers claimed that he was 'forcibly returned' to Georgia under murky circumstances and now faces an 'imminent risk of torture.' His lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, condemned the arrest, accusing Georgian authorities of misusing international legal mechanisms to target political opponents. The dramatic arrest comes amid renewed scrutiny of Ivanishvili's influence in Georgian politics and business. Georgia has been rocked by protests since Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October parliamentary elections rejected as rigged by the pro-Western opposition, then shelved talks on joining the European Union. Critics also accuse the government of sliding into authoritarianism and tilting the former Soviet republic back towards Russian influence -- an allegation it denies.
The Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Georgia Arrests Ex-Aide of Ruling Party Founder
TBILISI: Georgia on Tuesday announced the arrest of the former top aide to the country's richest man and ruling party founder, as his lawyers warned he risked torture after being forcibly returned. Giorgi Bachiashvili used to be the right-hand man to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party, who is widely believed to be the de facto ruler of the mountainous Caucasus nation. Bachiashvili, who once headed the tycoon's Co-Investment Fund, fled Georgia in early March amid mounting legal troubles. He has called his former boss Ivanishvili a 'power-drunk criminal' who 'is trading away the future of our country.' Sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison for alleged embezzlement and money laundering, he has accused Ivanishvili of threatening to 'crush' him in prison. On Tuesday, Georgia's State Security Service said Bachiashvili 'a dual Georgian-Russian national, wanted on an Interpol Red Notice, was arrested on Monday after an anonymous tip placed him near the neutral zone' at the border with Azerbaijan. But Bachiashvili's lawyers claimed that he was 'forcibly returned' to Georgia under murky circumstances and now faces an 'imminent risk of torture.' His lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, condemned the arrest, accusing Georgian authorities of misusing international legal mechanisms to target political opponents. The dramatic arrest comes amid renewed scrutiny of Ivanishvili's influence in Georgian politics and business. Georgia has been rocked by protests since Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October parliamentary elections rejected as rigged by the pro-Western opposition, then shelved talks on joining the European Union. Critics also accuse the government of sliding into authoritarianism and tilting the former Soviet republic back towards Russian influence -- an allegation it denies.
New York Times
27-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Zurab Tsereteli, Polarizing Russian Sculptor of Colossal Works, Dies at 91
Zurab K. Tsereteli, a Georgian-Russian artist whose towering monuments and heroic statues pleased the authorities in the Kremlin but drew scorn from Moscow to New Jersey, died on Tuesday at his home outside Moscow. He was 91. His death was announced by Sergei Shagulashvili, his assistant. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sent a condolence note to Mr. Tsereteli's family, calling him 'an outstanding representative of multinational Russian culture.' An admirer of Mr. Putin, Mr. Tsereteli unveiled a towering bronze statue of him in 2004, dressed in a belted judo tunic. (The work was so poorly received, however, that it remained with Mr. Tsereteli at his gallery.) Mr. Tsereteli's exuberant work largely defined post-Soviet Russian aesthetics. Flamboyant and vivacious, he was able to charm his way across geopolitical boundaries in earning the position of unofficial court artist in the Kremlin in the 1990s while also working with the government of his native Georgia as it tried to distance itself from Moscow. Mr. Tsereteli's statue of St. George slaying the dragon towers over Freedom Square in Tbilisi, the capital of the sculptor's native Georgia. It replaced a monument to Vladimir Lenin after the fall of the Soviet Union. Credit... Gunter Fischer/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images In Georgia, where many locals condemned him for staying in Russia, he built the Freedom Monument in Tbilisi, the capital, which replaced a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the main square after the Soviet Union's collapse. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Georgian-Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli dies aged 91
Georgian-Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, known for his gigantic and often controversial monuments, has died aged Tbilisi-born sculptor, painter and architect divided opinion with a series of large-scale projects in Moscow, including a massive 98m (321ft) monument to Tsar Peter the Great, who famously detested the to fame during the Soviet era, Tsereteli led the team of designers for Moscow's 1980 Olympic Games, and later built large sculptures in cities across the world. He was also known for his closeness to the Russian political elite, once saying that Vladimir Putin's "healthy soul" had inspired him to make a bronze study of the Russian president. Tsereteli was a close friend of Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and his position as part of the Soviet Union's upper crust allowed him to travel outside of the country, where he met Pablo Picasso in Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tsereteli was "an artist of world renown, a public figure who knew no boundaries or obstacles in strengthening peace and supporting creativity" in a social media post after his death."He will live not only in our hearts, but also in his works," she added. During a row over the Peter the Great monument's future in 2010, several Moscow residents told the BBC they hated the sculpture, which at 98m is slightly taller than the Statue of Liberty. Despite the sometimes frosty reception his works received, Tsereteli was widely respected throughout the art world, and served as the president of the Russian Academy of enormous constructions can be found in cities around the globe, including a monument to Christopher Columbus in Seville, Spain, and the Chronicle of Georgia monument in his hometown of also include the ten-storey Tear of Grief monument, commemorating victims of the 11 September 2001 attacks, which stands in New Jersey. It was presented to the US by the Russian government. Another sculpture, Good Defeats Evil, sits at the UN Headquarters in New York. It depicts St George slaying a dragon, which lies among broken fragments of US and Soviet work represents "the vanquishing of nuclear war through the historic treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States", according to the UN 2006, Tsereteli caused controversy in a small French town, which erected his huge 8.75m-tall (29 ft) bronze statue of Pope John Paul II. Opponents said the statue violated France's secularity laws. At 110m (360ft), Tsereteli's colossal monument to Christopher Columbus's first voyage, Birth of the New World, is one of the tallest sculptures on earth. It was eventually constructed in Puerto Rico, after several US cities rejected also made smaller bronze studies of major figures including Princess Diana and was also a painter - notably of flowers - and an architect who took a key role in reconstructing Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
Time of India
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Zurab Tsereteli, whose monumental works won over Russian elites, dies aged 91
Zurab Tsereteli (File Photo) MOSCOW: Georgian-Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli , a politically connected artist known for his monumental yet sometimes divisive works, has died aged 91, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday. He died at his home in Peredelkino, a village southwest of Moscow, "surrounded by his works", his assistant Sergei Shagulashvili told the RIA news agency. Born and trained in Tbilisi, Tsereteli rose to prominence designing resort complexes in then-Soviet Georgia during the 1960s. He became chief artist of the USSR's ministry of foreign affairs and later head of Russia's influential academy of arts, serving in the role from 1997 until his death. Popular with Russia's elite, Tsereteli's friendship with Moscow's mayor Yury Luzhkov in the 1990s gave him what critics called a "monopoly" on public art. He populated the Russian capital with his distinct brand of monumental architecture, earning the wrath of many Russian intellectuals in the process. His giant statue of Peter the Great on a ship on the Moscow River got a tongue-lashing in the press, while a 500-tonne monument to Christopher Columbus built in the early 1990s was rejected by several US cities as a monstrosity. Reverence for Putin Tsereteli is more fondly known for presiding over the reconstruction of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour , an Orthodox church meticulously rebuilt in the 1990s after it was demolished by Stalin. Tsereteli also enjoyed brief success in the West during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, unveiling works that embodied the fall of communism: "Break the Wall of Distrust" in London in 1989 and "Good Defeats Evil" in New York in 1990 -- made partly from the remnants of Soviet and American missiles. Encouraged by this success, he attempted to donate a monument dedicated to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to the city of New York, a giant 30-metre (100-foot) sculpture featuring a teardrop, but the authorities politely declined his offer. The work finally found a home in 2005 in Bayonne, a city of 60,000 in New Jersey, in view of downtown Manhattan across the water. Tsereteli revered President Vladimir Putin, unveiling a five-metre bronze statue of the Russian leader posing in judo gear in 2004. But the piece was so badly received by the Kremlin that a Russian media report quoted an anonymous official as saying it should "not be exhibited anywhere except in the courtyard of the sculptor's own home". "He of all people should know that President Putin has an extremely negative attitude towards such things," the official told the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid.
