GEORGIA: A Bill Tackling Young Offenders & more – 27th Nov 2025

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 27th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Monday, the 24th, the Georgia Dream or the Kotsebi party supported a controversial bill to address crimes committed by young people under fourteen. Currently, the police have no formal system or facility, like a juvenile detention center, to handle these cases, meaning children under the criminal responsibility age often face no intervention.

To fill this gap, the Kotsebi wants to create a new Rehabilitation and Support House. This center would be a small, family-type home and house people from ten to eighteen years old.

Critics of the bill, like the Public Defender’s office, warn that the facility might become a correctional center. They argue that isolating young people and labeling them as potential offenders could increase their psychological problems and actually raise the risk of future misconduct, calling instead for better prevention and support programs.

Next Up. On Tuesday, the 25th, Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of the Kotsebi parliament, publicly accused independent online media outlets of criminal conduct.

He said these organizations are breaking the law by finding ways around regulations. Without providing evidence, he said that they bring money into Georgia illegally, using methods like cryptocurrency and cash in suitcases. He also called them NGO websites that ignore journalistic standards.

He warned that law enforcement agencies are watching their activities and will intervene if they find that they have committed a crime.

In similar news. Georgia’s Anti-Corruption Bureau launched an official inquiry targeting the independent online magazine Indigo.

The Bureau requested extensive documentation from Indigo regarding every grant agreement it signed after the ruling party passed the law requiring government approval for grants. This request is similar to investigations the Bureau started against other media groups, including the Mtis Ambebi project.

Indigo said it will continue its mission to support free speech despite the pressure.

Meanwhile, Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the Kotsebi party and the richest Georgian, won the final round of a long legal battle against the global bank UBS/Credit Suisse.

On Monday, the 24th, the UK's highest appeals court, the Privy Council in London, upheld a twenty twenty-two decision that ordered the bank to pay Ivanishvili 607 million dollars. The dispute stems from a fraudulent scheme run by Ivanishvili's former personal banker, Patrick Lescaudron, who was convicted in twenty eighteen for stealing funds from Ivanishvili's accounts for years.

This is the second major defeat for the bank, following a twenty twenty-four ruling in Singapore. However, Ivanishvili cannot access the whole compensation payments of the bank, even after winning in court, because of US financial sanctions imposed in December twenty twenty-four.

On Saturday, the 22nd, a Court sentenced protester Vano Skhirtladze to eight days in jail for squeezing a squeaky toy rooster near police officers' faces. The Interior Ministry says he meant to insult police officers.

A police witness told the court they felt genuinely offended by the cynical and ironic use of the toy so close to their faces. Skhirtladze said that what he did was not an insult but performance art, an experiment meant to test the officers' composure. He said some of them passed the test, but some did laugh.

Check out Skhirtladze’s performance in the Show Notes.

In more unusual news regarding the police, Buckswood International School had a bit of a controversy this week after demonstrators shared a video of officers arriving at the pro-European demonstration site with a minibus clearly marked with the school's logo.

The private school, which is a branch of the UK’s Buckswood School, quickly issued a statement to clarify the situation, saying the minibus was not theirs, and the driver was not their employee. They explained that a third-party transport company handles a small part of their student services and the school had absolutely no role in organizing transport for the police.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe given on Tuesday, the 25th, German Ambassador Peter Fischer commented on Georgia-EU relations following the European Commission’s expansion report released on the 4th of November. Fischer called the report catastrophic for Georgians who want EU membership.

The Ambassador stressed that Germany fully agrees with the report's conclusion: that under its current policy, Georgia has strayed from the path toward the EU. He warned that Germany and other EU members are now pausing work on Georgia's membership bid because of the actions taken by the Georgian side, including the destruction of the NGO sector, violations of demonstrators' rights, suppression of political parties, and sustained pressure on free media.

The German Ambassador was not the only one talking about Georgia this week. In a separate interview, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told Radio Free Europe that he is not naive about the political situation in Georgia and that the events there seriously worry the alliance.

Rutte said that NATO has clearly communicated its concerns to Georgian officials. He said that the existing cooperation between NATO and Georgia serves to maintain an open channel for the alliance to express its dissatisfaction.

On another note, on Wednesday, the 26th, the Court sentenced Nika Melia, a leader of the Coalition for Change or Tsvlilebebistvis party, to one year and six months for splashing water at a judge.

He is already serving time, along with three other leaders of his party, for refusing the summons to parliament's investigative committee, which was formed to investigate alleged political crimes of the previous administration.

The water splashing accident happened during his first court hearing, where police brought Melia after a special operation to arrest him.

On Monday, the 24th, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. The Prime Minister's press office says Kobakhidze congratulated the Pope on his election and expressed hope that the visit would help strengthen relations between Georgia and the Holy See.

Kobakhidze thanked the Pope for the Vatican's ongoing support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity since the restoration of its independence. They also discussed current events in Georgia and global challenges concerning the defense of Christian and traditional values.

In the end, Kobakhidze extended an invitation to the Pope to visit Georgia. He invited the Pontiff to celebrate the upcoming 17th-century anniversary of Georgia's conversion to Christianity.

Starting in twenty twenty-six, Georgia will introduce an official state language exam for non-Georgian speakers who need to demonstrate their language proficiency.

On Monday, the 24th Givi Mikanadze, the Education Minister, announced the news and said that this certification is especially important for foreign students who want to study in Georgia, foreigners seeking public service jobs and those working in the business sector.

The state language exam will be held multiple times a year and test four skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Initially, two different tests will be offered, covering beginner levels A1 through B2. The Ministry plans to expand the testing to include the advanced C1 and C2 levels starting in twenty thirty.

Finishing off this edition with some cultural news, the 26th Tbilisi International Film Festival, which runs from the 1st to the 7th of December, announced its program. The festival opens at the Amirani Cinema with Pietro Marcello’s film DUSE and will screen about forty international films and thirty Georgian films. This year, the festival honors Swiss filmmaker Nicola Vadimov with the Prometheus Lifetime Achievement Award.

The jury will select the best Georgian films in four categories, and the European Union will sponsor an award for the best depiction of human rights in Georgian cinema.

Festival organizers say that state structures cancelled their funding, forcing them to host a smaller festival this year. They believe that the funding cut is political because the government opposes the festival's strong, independent platform promoting human rights and freedom of expression. Organizers also use the platform to demand the release of prisoners of conscience.

Check out the festival's program with the link in the show notes.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Don't forget that our new very cool t-shirts are out now! Set up your personal collection and we'll give you a discount code for your friends! But it gets better… The person who sells the most t-shirts with the discount code will get a free trip to Lisbon in early April. Check the link in the show notes!

Nakhvamdis!