GEORGIA: Visa Restrictions & more – 30th Jan 2025

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 30th of January twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Monday, the 27th, The EU Council suspended visa-free travel for Georgian diplomats and officials. The decision affects members of official Georgian delegations attending meetings or events in EU countries, members of Georgia's government, parliament, and courts, as well as holders of diplomatic passports. Regular Georgian passport holders will still enjoy visa-free travel to the EU for visits up to ninety days.

The Council explained that this move is a response to actions by Georgia’s ruling party, including passing a foreign agents law and an anti-LGBTQ law. It’s also a reaction to the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, politicians, and independent media, especially after the Georgian government suspended EU ascension talks until twenty twenty-eight.

The biggest upset for the legitimization of Georgia’s ruling party happened on Wednesday, the 29th, when the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (or PACE) ratified the mandates of the Georgian delegation with conditions and restrictions. Conditions include the ruling party releasing all political prisoners and beginning an inclusive process with all political parties to address flaws in the electoral process, leading to new elections. This should be done before PACE’s April session. If the Georgian Dream or the Kotsebii fail to act, the PACE will consider canceling the authorization of the Georgian delegation.

The Georgian side refused these conditions and declared that they would cease cooperation with the PACE until the conditions were revoked. It is yet unclear whether this means the Georgian delegation will simply stop attending the PACE sessions or if the country will leave the organization altogether.

Next up. On Thursday, the 23rd, the European Center for Press and Media Freedom, along with media protection groups like the International Press Institute, PEN International, and the European Federation of Journalists, called for the immediate release of Mzia Amaglobeli, a veteran Georgian journalist and founder of news agencies Batumelebi and Netgazeti. Amaglobeli faces charges of assaulting Police Chief Irakli Dgebuadze in Batumi, a seaside city in western Georgian.

She was arrested on the 11th of January during a demonstration in front of the police station. On the 20th of January, Amaglobeli went on a hunger strike to protest the charges and the mistreatment she faced in detention. Human rights groups are demanding her release, an investigation into how she was treated, and an end to the crackdown on media freedom in Georgia.

Mzia Amaglobeli isn’t the only one on a hunger strike after being detained during protests. Activist Temur Khatamadze was also arrested in Batumi. Authorities are now looking into deporting him to Turkey since he doesn’t have Georgian citizenship. Khatamadze has lived in Georgia for twelve years and has applied for citizenship multiple times, but his requests have been denied. His refugee status application was also turned down.

He’s been active in pro-European protests and has earned the nickname flagbearer because he’s always seen with the Georgian flag. Khatamadze says that during his arrest, Batumi police chief Irakli Dgebuadze, the same police chief Mzia Amaglobeli is accused of attacking, and ten officers used force against him. He has been on hunger strike for fourteen days.

On Wednesday, the 29th, The Czech Republic imposed sanctions on three senior officials from Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for violence against demonstrators in Georgia last year. The sanctioned individuals are: Zviad Kharazishvili - the Head of the Special Assignments Department, Mirza Kezebadze, his deputy, and Vazha Siradze, the Head of the Patrol Police. They are banned from entering the Czech Republic.

In other news, a database containing millions of Georgian citizens' personal data leaked online. On Monday, the 27th, news portals Cybernews and Techradar reported that cybersecurity researcher Bob Dyachenko and his team discovered the breach. The data was stored on a German server. One list in the database held the personal data of five million users, and another had over seven million phone numbers linked to personal details. With Georgia's population around four million, some records may include duplicates or information about deceased people.

The sensitive data included IDs, names, birthdates, genders, insurance numbers, and phone numbers. Dyachenko believes the data came from various sources, possibly government or commercial databases. While the server was shut down quickly, the leak still poses risks, with the potential for political manipulation or criminal activity.

The most viral news of this week also had to do with cybersecurity. On Friday, the 24th, pro-European hackers took over Tbilisi’s public transport ticket machines. These machines are in the buses, and usually, passengers hear a voice confirmation after paying with a card. But this time, they got something completely different – recordings of the Georgian national anthem, and speeches of first president Zviad Gamsakhurdia and PM Zura Zhvania about independence and Europe. The machines also played the EU anthem, a message of support for Ukraine, and ended with anti-Russia statements.

To quickly deal with the problem, the City Hall had to use some less than savvy technical solutions: they announced that the bus rides would be free for the day. However, in several cases drivers had to put duct tape over the speakers.

According to the NGO Transparency International, Bidzina Ivanishvili has begun transferring his offshore assets to Georgia, with the process accelerating in recent days. On the 31st of December, twenty twenty-four, Ivanishvili and his family started moving companies from offshore zones to Georgia. By the 29th of January, they had registered eight new joint-stock companies in Georgia and moved twelve companies from offshore jurisdictions. The transfers include significant capital, totaling approximately 163 million lari, which is 56 million dollars. This process follows US sanctions imposed on Ivanishvili in December twenty twenty-four.

On another note, several politicians from the ruling party have proposed a bill that would grant members of Georgia's Election Administration the right to carry service weapons. Under the bill, members would retain this right even after their term ends, as long as they’ve continuously served for the last four years. Parliament is set to review the bill when it begins its spring session.

Recall that following the October parliamentary elections, the prime minister assigned Gogi Kalandarishvili, the chairperson of the Election Administration, a security detail. Many people in Georgia blame the Election Administration for falsifying the votes for the benefit of the Kotsebi, thus giving them additional privileges and protections aims to reassure its members of their safety.

On Friday, the 24th, Gogi Gakharia, the leader of For Georgia or Sakartvelostvis, spoke about the details of his assault —which we have reported in previous shows. He explained that he had been in Batumi to attend a court hearing for one of his party members. When he returned to the Sheraton Hotel, a group of people waited for him, some of them armed. They insulted and verbally attacked him, so Gakharia responded by splashing a cup of coffee on the Kotsebi MP Dito Samkharadze. Following this, the group physically assaulted him.

Gakharia says that Bidzina Ivanishvili orchestrated the attack, noting that Ivanishvili had publicly threatened him and his team. Gakharia also pointed out the hotel lobby's unusual emptiness during the attack and saw one person recording the incident, reinforcing his belief that the attack was premeditated.

This week, Italian authorities arrested nineteen Georgian women for using fake documents. Seventeen more women are facing charges. Police took action after a significant rise in Georgians applying for tax codes in the northeastern city of Udine. The investigators noticed that all the women who were ethnically Georgian used fake IDs from Slovakia, Poland, and Lithuania to work legally in Italy. They used these IDs to get fiscal codes in Udine, then moved to other regions for work.

Investigators suspected the documents were fake and found that they were made abroad for about 600 euros. Police conducted raids simultaneously in several cities. If the fraud scheme is confirmed, the women will face deportation from Italy.

In more news about Georgians in Europe. On Friday, the 24th, a forty-five-year-old Georgian citizen deliberately crashed his car into a police station in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The man broke through the front door and drove into the reception area. Security footage indicated the driver intentionally repeated the maneuver several times before managing to breach through the entrance. Fortunately, only one person was inside at the time, and they managed to escape without injury. A blood test revealed that he was drunk. However, the police are investigating whether he had any other motive.

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

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Nakhvamdis!