Georgia

TBILISI, Oct 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Georgia has arrested former President Mikheil Saakashvili after his return to the country following eight years in exile, as the ex-leader sought to mobilise supporters ahead of national municipal elections seen as critical to the country’s political makeup.

Local media showed a video of smiling Saakashvili being escorted into the Rustavi penitentiary institution on Friday evening.

TBILISI, October 1. /TASS/: Information that Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia’s ex-president, is currently in Georgia heats up and disturbs the calm pre-election atmosphere, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili stated in her written address on Friday.

TBILISI, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A top human rights lawyer who defended jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's team and announced this week he had fled Russia accused authorities on Thursday of a mounting campaign to purge the political landscape of people they see as undesirable.

Defence lawyer Ivan Pavlov, 50, gained prominence for taking on politically sensitive cases and defending people charged with treason or espionage by the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet KGB.

BATUMI, Georgia, June 26 (Reuters) - The British destroyer Defender, which angered Russia by sailing through waters off Crimea, docked at the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi on Saturday.

Russia said it had fired warning shots at the Defender, and later threatened to bomb British naval vessels in the Black Sea if there were further "provocative" actions off Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The peninsula is still recognised internationally as part of Ukraine.

TBILISI, February 23. / TASS /: Georgian Interior Ministry officials have arrested the chairman of the opposition United National Movement party founded by former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, MP Nika Melia, whose arrest was sanctioned by the Tbilisi court last week for failure to pay bail in the amount of 40,000 lari over (over $12,000) in the case of riots at the June 2019 rally, Georgia's First TV Channel reported on Tuesday.

TBILISI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia announced his resignation on Thursday.

Gakharia said in a statement that he decided to step down because he could not reach an agreement with the ruling party over the arrest warrant issued against Nika Melia, a parliament member and head of the United National Movement opposition party.

He believed it was wrong to arrest Melia when there is a danger of political escalation in the country. 

TBILISI, January 31. /TASS/: In February, Georgia will receive 29,250 doses of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus, produced by US company Pfizer, Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia told reporters on Saturday.

"Today, the Health Ministry was officially notified that starting from mid-February and until the end of the month, the country will receive the first batch of 29,250 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. They are intended for healthcare workers," she said.

TBILISI, December 11. /TASS/: The Georgian government has stepped down due to a new parliament convocation as required by law, the government press service told TASS Friday.

"The government resigned. From now on, the prime minister and the whole cabinet are acting [ministers]," TASS was told.

VALDOSTA, Ga. (Reuters) - Convinced that the presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump, the young couple from Blairsville, Georgia at first resolved to skip the state’s Jan. 5 runoffs for two U.S. Senate seats. What’s the point, they figured, of voting in another rigged election?

Then they thought better of it, setting aside their anger for the more pressing concern of keeping one of the two houses of Congress under Republican control.

“Everybody is going to vote,” said Kayla Frank, 25.

TBILISI, October 31. /TASS/: Polling stations for a parliamentary vote opened in Georgia at 8:00 local time on Saturday (7:00 Moscow time), a TASS correspondent reported.

Georgian citizens can cast their ballot until 20:00 local time (19:00 Moscow time) at 3,847 polling stations, including 52 abroad.

The 150-seat parliament of Georgia will be elected via a mixed system: 30 seats via the majority system, and 120 - via the proportional system. In order to dominate the government, a political party needs to secure at least 40.54% of votes.