Latest news with #Ivanishvili
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Georgia to shutter EU and NATO information centre as ties with West fray
By Felix Light TBILISI (Reuters) -The Georgian government is to close its information centre on NATO and the European Union, Georgian media reported on Wednesday, citing the country's foreign ministry, amid souring ties between Tbilisi and the West. According to its website, the information centre aims "to engage our population in Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration processes and to gain their well-informed support". The centre, opened in 2005, is based in a large building on Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi and flies the flags of the EU, the NATO military alliance and Georgia. Georgia's Interpress news agency reported that the centre is to be merged into the foreign ministry and that some staff have been told they are to be dismissed. The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Georgia has been an EU candidate member since 2023, while NATO said in 2008 that the mountainous country of 3.6 million would eventually join the alliance. But though once among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union's successor states, Georgia's government has in recent years moved to clamp down on domestic critics, while also rebuilding ties with former imperial overlord, Russia. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader, has said the EU and NATO are controlled by a shadowy "global war party" that seeks to topple the government and drag his country into war with Russia. Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party in November 2024 paused EU accession talks until 2028, abruptly halting a popular national goal that is written into the country's constitution. The EU has said Tbilisi's application has been frozen over laws on "foreign agents" and LGBT rights that Brussels has criticised as restrictive and influenced by Russian policies . Georgian Dream says it still wants to eventually join the EU and NATO, but that it also wants to keep the peace with its huge northern neighbour, as well as preserve the country's traditional Christian values. The United States imposed sanctions on Ivanishvili last December, accusing him of dismantling Georgian democracy in the interests of Russia. Tbilisi and Moscow have had no formal diplomatic ties since 2008, when Russia defeated Georgia in a brief war over two Moscow-backed separatist regions.
The Star
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Star
Georgia to shutter EU and NATO information centre as ties with West fray
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Georgia's opposition parties hold a rally to protest against the result of a recent parliamentary election won by the ruling Georgian Dream party, in Tbilisi, Georgia November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo TBILISI (Reuters) -The Georgian government is to close its information centre on NATO and the European Union, Georgian media reported on Wednesday, citing the country's foreign ministry, amid souring ties between Tbilisi and the West. According to its website, the information centre aims "to engage our population in Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration processes and to gain their well-informed support". The centre, opened in 2005, is based in a large building on Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi and flies the flags of the EU, the NATO military alliance and Georgia. Georgia's Interpress news agency reported that the centre is to be merged into the foreign ministry and that some staff have been told they are to be dismissed. The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Georgia has been an EU candidate member since 2023, while NATO said in 2008 that the mountainous country of 3.6 million would eventually join the alliance. But though once among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union's successor states, Georgia's government has in recent years moved to clamp down on domestic critics, while also rebuilding ties with former imperial overlord, Russia. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader, has said the EU and NATO are controlled by a shadowy "global war party" that seeks to topple the government and drag his country into war with Russia. Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party in November 2024 paused EU accession talks until 2028, abruptly halting a popular national goal that is written into the country's constitution. The EU has said Tbilisi's application has been frozen over laws on "foreign agents" and LGBT rights that Brussels has criticised as restrictive and influenced by Russian policies . Georgian Dream says it still wants to eventually join the EU and NATO, but that it also wants to keep the peace with its huge northern neighbour, as well as preserve the country's traditional Christian values. The United States imposed sanctions on Ivanishvili last December, accusing him of dismantling Georgian democracy in the interests of Russia. Tbilisi and Moscow have had no formal diplomatic ties since 2008, when Russia defeated Georgia in a brief war over two Moscow-backed separatist regions. (Reporting by Felix LightEditing by Gareth Jones)
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Georgia to shutter EU and NATO information centre as ties with West fray
TBILISI, June 4 (Reuters) - The Georgian government is to close its information centre on NATO and the European Union, Georgian media reported on Wednesday, citing the country's foreign ministry, amid souring ties between Tbilisi and the West. According to its website, the information centre aims "to engage our population in Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration processes and to gain their well-informed support". The centre, opened in 2005, is based in a large building on Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi and flies the flags of the EU, the NATO military alliance and Georgia. Georgia's Interpress news agency reported that the centre is to be merged into the foreign ministry and that some staff have been told they are to be dismissed. The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Georgia has been an EU candidate member since 2023, while NATO said in 2008 that the mountainous country of 3.6 million would eventually join the alliance. But though once among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union's successor states, Georgia's government has in recent years moved to clamp down on domestic critics, while also rebuilding ties with former imperial overlord, Russia. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader, has said the EU and NATO are controlled by a shadowy "global war party" that seeks to topple the government and drag his country into war with Russia. Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party in November 2024 paused EU accession talks until 2028, abruptly halting a popular national goal that is written into the country's constitution. The EU has said Tbilisi's application has been frozen over laws on "foreign agents" and LGBT rights that Brussels has criticised as restrictive and influenced by Russian policies . Georgian Dream says it still wants to eventually join the EU and NATO, but that it also wants to keep the peace with its huge northern neighbour, as well as preserve the country's traditional Christian values. The United States imposed sanctions on Ivanishvili last December, accusing him of dismantling Georgian democracy in the interests of Russia. Tbilisi and Moscow have had no formal diplomatic ties since 2008, when Russia defeated Georgia in a brief war over two Moscow-backed separatist regions.
Straits Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Georgia to shutter EU and NATO information centre as ties with West fray
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Georgia's opposition parties walk past a wall painted with the flag of the European Union (with a sign) and the Georgian flag during a protest against the government's decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union in Tbilisi, Georgia December 8, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Georgia's opposition parties hold a rally to protest against the result of a recent parliamentary election won by the ruling Georgian Dream party, in Tbilisi, Georgia November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo Georgia to shutter EU and NATO information centre as ties with West fray TBILISI - The Georgian government is to close its information centre on NATO and the European Union, Georgian media reported on Wednesday, citing the country's foreign ministry, amid souring ties between Tbilisi and the West. According to its website, the information centre aims "to engage our population in Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration processes and to gain their well-informed support". The centre, opened in 2005, is based in a large building on Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi and flies the flags of the EU, the NATO military alliance and Georgia. Georgia's Interpress news agency reported that the centre is to be merged into the foreign ministry and that some staff have been told they are to be dismissed. The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Georgia has been an EU candidate member since 2023, while NATO said in 2008 that the mountainous country of 3.6 million would eventually join the alliance. But though once among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union's successor states, Georgia's government has in recent years moved to clamp down on domestic critics, while also rebuilding ties with former imperial overlord, Russia. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader, has said the EU and NATO are controlled by a shadowy "global war party" that seeks to topple the government and drag his country into war with Russia. Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party in November 2024 paused EU accession talks until 2028, abruptly halting a popular national goal that is written into the country's constitution. The EU has said Tbilisi's application has been frozen over laws on "foreign agents" and LGBT rights that Brussels has criticised as restrictive and influenced by Russian policies . Georgian Dream says it still wants to eventually join the EU and NATO, but that it also wants to keep the peace with its huge northern neighbour, as well as preserve the country's traditional Christian values. The United States imposed sanctions on Ivanishvili last December, accusing him of dismantling Georgian democracy in the interests of Russia. Tbilisi and Moscow have had no formal diplomatic ties since 2008, when Russia defeated Georgia in a brief war over two Moscow-backed separatist regions. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Former aide of Georgia's most powerful man claims he was abducted abroad
A former confidant of Georgia's most powerful man has alleged in a Tbilisi court that he was "kidnapped from abroad" last Saturday and flown back to Georgia by force. Giorgi Bachiashvili, 39, who once headed the Co-Investment Fund for Georgia's de facto ruler, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, accused officials of resorting to "banditry" and acting on Ivanishvili's direct orders. He told a Tbilisi court he was blindfolded for two days and then flown back "in complete violation of the law", without access to his lawyers and family. However, authorities say he was detained near a border crossing and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said he should be happy he was safely in Georgia. Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party has been in power for 13 years, although the opposition considers the government and parliament "illegitimate", citing widespread allegations of election fraud last October. "Today I am Ivanishvili's personal prisoner," declared Bachiashvili in court on Thursday. He is due to return to court on 9 June. Bachiashvili went on the run in early March, when he fled Georgia midway through a trial that later saw him sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison for embezzlement, which he has vehemently denied. He had been accused of misappropriating $42.7m from a Bitcoin investment deal, a case he said was politically motivated and led by Ivanishvili. Although he did not say where he had been at the time of his alleged abduction on Saturday, a close friend said on condition of anonymity that Bachiashvili had been at a hotel in Abu Dhabi when three vehicles arrived, and he was seized. "He gets extradited with no lawyer, no trial, absolutely nothing," the friend told the BBC. The BBC has approached the authorities in UAE for a response to the allegation. The businessman also alleged that he had been forcibly returned on a Bombardier aircraft run by Airzena, the former name of privately owned Georgian Airways. In a statement, the airline said it was impossible for anyone to "board or depart from any international airport on any airline illegally". Whatever the circumstances surrounding his return to Georgia, the State Security Service announced he had been arrested on Monday after an anonymous tip-off near the Red Bridge border crossing with Azerbaijan. That crossing has been shut by Azerbaijan since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. International lawyer Robert Amsterdam said this week that his client was at risk of "arbitrary detention, coercive interrogation, and abusive mistreatment". The head of Georgia's state security service, Anri Okhanashvili, said Bachiashvili had been convicted of a crime and would serve his sentence, adding that not a single hair had fallen from his head, Interpressnews agency reported. The prime minister said the businessman appeared to believe that his life was in danger. If that was the case then he should be happy he was back "in Georgia, in a safe place... in appropriate conditions". The allegations coincide with the departure of another close aide of Georgia's most powerful man. Long-serving interior minister Vahtang Gomelauri resigned on Wednesday without giving a reason, other than to spend more time with his family. Gomelauri has in the past acted as a personal bodyguard for Bidzina Ivanishvili and he has been placed under economic sanctions from the US, the UK and several EU countries for his alleged role in violent suppression of anti-government protests. Ivanishvili, whose estimated wealth is $4.9bn (£3.9bn), made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s in computing, metals and banking. Local hero or Russian ally? The billionaire dividing Georgians Hunger-striking journalist challenges Georgia's government from jail He established a political party in Georgia in 2011 and won elections the following year. Bachiashvili told the Guardian he had served as Ivanishvili's "right-hand man" for over a decade, managing the oligarch's vast financial empire and acting as deputy chief executive of Georgia's sovereign wealth fund. He described playing a crucial role in recovering hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Ivanishvili by a rogue Credit Suisse adviser, successfully leading complex legal battles across multiple jurisdictions. However, according to Bachiashvili, their relationship soured after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He added that Ivanishvili had operated like "a sultan and his servants" with prime ministers, judges and prosecutors, who had all made pilgrimages to his hilltop residence in the capital Tbilisi. Bachiashvili's case mirrors that of another fallen Georgian Dream ally, businessman Giorgi Chikvaidze, who was sentenced to nine years in prison on embezzlement charges in recent weeks after publicly turning against the ruling party and claiming to possess evidence of government ties to Russian intelligence. "Everyone will be held accountable sooner or later," Bachiashvili said in the dock on Thursday, promising to reveal "all the details" of what he called an international crime committed on his former boss's direct orders. Additional reporting by Paul Kirby and Nino Shonia.
