Timeline-2007


» Timeline:
  200220032004 – 2005 – 2006

January February March April May June
July August September October November December

 January

 
January 2 – President Saakashvili traveled in the South Ossetian conflict zone, where he met with the local population of the Georgian village of Tamarasheni.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14404
 
January 4 – President Saakashvili left for Ukraine for a two-day informal visit. 
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14406
 
January 4 – Russian envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin said his country is “not entirely happy” with the way the Georgian authorities had been implementing the Council’s resolution on Abkhazia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14407
 
January 5 – One Georgian policeman died and another was injured after a group of armed men attacked a police checkpoint in the Georgian village of Ganmukhuri in the Abkhaz conflict.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14417
 
January 10 – President Saakashvili signed constitutional amendments into law in a televised ceremony and said that the new law “is a step ahead towards constitutional stability.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14425
 
January 10 – The Georgian Coast Guard detained two fishing vessels, one sailing under the Russian and another under the Ukrainian flags, in the Abkhaz section of Georgia’s territorial waters.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14427
 
January 11 – President Saakashvili arrived in Georgian-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia where he attended a session of the Abkhaz government-in-exile.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14431
 
January 11 – President Saakashvili said: “The adoption of a new constitution will be possible only after total restoration of the country’s territorial integrity; we have no other choice”.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14433
 
January 12 – Top officials from Azerbaijan and Georgia gathered in Tbilisi in an attempt to finalize a deal on the construction of the Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway, which will link Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14439
 
January 15 – The fixed tariff for water consumption in Tbilisi has increased from GEL 1.2 to GEL 2.4 per family member per month.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14449
 
January 15 – Two Russian peacekeepers were injured after their vehicle hit a mine in the South Ossetian conflict zone.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14453
 
January 16 – World Bank issued a report according to which Georgia is one of the largest emigration countries.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14458
 
January 16 – EU delegation, involving Peter Semneby, the EU special envoy to the South Caucasus, and Hugues Mingarelli, the European Commission Director for Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia, held talks with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity in Tskhinvali. The next day the delegation traveled to Sokhumi
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14461
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14463
 
January 18 – Russia will send its Ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, back to Tbilisi, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14471
 
January 18 – Colonel Nikoloz Janjgava has been appointed Commander of the Georgian National Guard.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14472
 
January 19 – Fourteen years of negotiation, led by the UN and Russia, have done little to resolve the conflict in Abkhazia and “if the sides continue to flex their muscles and do not resume talks, there could be renewed hostilities in 2007, especially in and around the Kodori valley and the Gali district,” the Belgium-based International Crisis Group said in a report.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14478
 
January 19 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity in Moscow.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14479
 
January 22 – A new TV station under the patronage of the Georgian Orthodox Church will begin broadcasting aimed towards promoting, as the founders say, “Georgian national values.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14485
 
January 22 – A Batumi court found former leader of the Adjara Autonomous Republic Aslan Abashidze guilty of misuse of office and embezzlement of GEL 98.2 million state funds, and sentenced him to a 15-year imprisonment in absentia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14486
 
January 23 – Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said that although there are many skeptics in Europe doubting the success of Tbilisi’s efforts to replace the current Russian-led peacekeeping operations with international forces, it is a realistic goal that will be accomplished “sooner or later.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14490
 
January 24 – Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili is paying a two-day working visit to Italy.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14495
 
January 25 – Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Merab Antadze left for Moscow where he met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14502
 
January 26 – Certain number of Chechen militants is still harboring in Georgia’s Pankisi gorge, Russian border guard service official said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14516
 
January 26 – TBC Bank said Israel’s second largest bank, Leumi, would buy 20% of the TBC Bank’s share capital. The deal, however, never materialized.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14514
 
January 28 – Three South Ossetian militiamen were injured after their post in the southern outskirts of Tskhinvali came under fire.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14520
 
January 29 – Several heads of provincial districts and chairmen of Sakrebulos (local councils) have filed for resignation at the demand of ruling National Movement party leaders who have accused some of the local officials of misuse of office.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14525
 
January 29- Georgian and Russian Foreign Ministers, Gela Bezhuashvili and Sergey Lavrov, held a phone conversation.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14528
 
January 30- A few hundred protesters gathered outside the Tbilisi Municipality to protest against what they call the “abolition of compensations” by the government for war veterans.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14534

^Up

February
 
February 1 – Russian President Vladimir Putin said that last year Moscow took into consideration Georgia’s desire to purchase cheap gas from Azerbaijan and did not pressure Tbilisi to immediately sign a contract with Gazprom.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14549
 
February 2 – Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft signed an agreement to combat illicit trafficking in nuclear or radioactive materials.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14557
 
February 3 – Two civilians – an ethnic Georgian and an ethnic Ossetian – have reportedly been injured as a result of shootout that occurred in the South Ossetian conflict zone.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14561
 
February 4 – Officials in breakaway Abkhazia said head of the local election commission in the Gali district of the unrecognized republic, David Sigua, was abducted.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14560
 
February 6 – Russia’s ambassador to Georgia said Moscow wanted Georgia to be a neutral state.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14575
 
February 6 – President Saakashvili met with the leaders of opposition parliamentary factions and discussed issues related to the country’s territorial integrity.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14576
 
February 7 – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Georgia and signed an agreement on a regional railway link connecting Azerbaijan with Turkey via Georgia. The leaders have also a new terminal of the Tbilisi International Airport, which was constructed by the Turkish consortium TAV-Urban
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14579
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14587
 
February 11 – Breakaway Abkhazia held local self-governance elections.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14602
 
February 12-18 – CoE Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg visited Georgia and looked into the human rights situation in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as in the Adjara Autonomous Republic.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14604
 
February 12 – A Georgian army helicopter with 17 Defense Ministry personnel onboard crashed on February 12 in Kutaisi. No one died.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14606
 
February 12 – President Saakashvili visited the village of Kurta in the South Ossetian conflict zone.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14607
 
February 12 – U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs Dan Sullivan and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Europe Paul Dyck visited Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14609
 
February 13 – President Saakashvili attended the presidential inauguration ceremony in Turkmenistan.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14613
 
February 13 – Georgian courts should shed light on the high-profile murder case of Sandro Girgvliani “in a way expected by society,” Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14618
 
February 13 – Visiting Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili met with his Slovakian counterpart Jan Kubis in Bratislava.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=1462
 
February 15 – Veteran Georgian lawmaker Zurab Tskitishvili from the ruling National Movement party said he was quitting the Parliament.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14627
 
February 15 – Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu met with his Georgian counterpart Vano Merabishvili in Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14629
 
February 15 – The Georgian-language newspaper Georgian Times published a list of, as it said, the “richest Georgians” on February 15, featuring Badri Patarkatsishvili in the top of the list with USD 12 billion. Also on the list are former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, with USD 250 million, and Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli with USD 75 million.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14631
 
February 16 – President Saakashvili visited Dubai.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14634
 
February 16 – A court in the western Georgian town of Zugdidi found Pridon Chakaberia, head of the administration of Kvemo Bargebi village in the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia, guilty of trafficking a “large amount of heroin” and sentenced him to 10-year imprisonment.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14638
 
February 17 – Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli left for Kuwait for a two-day visit.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14646
 
February 17 – The ruling majority in the Parliament turned down a draft law targeting former KGB employees. On the same day the ruling party unexpectedly unleashed criticism of the Rustavi 2 television for “a shameful attempt” to promote Joseph Stalin as the “greatest Georgian politician.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14650
 
February 19-22 – Staff and command exercises of the breakaway Abkhaz armed forces with the participation of two reserve brigades was held.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14654
 
February 19 – With the current pace of reforms Georgia has a real chance of becoming a NATO member, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after talks with his Georgian counterpart Gela Bezhuashvili in Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14658
 
February 22 – GEL 6 million (about USD 3.5 million) has been allocated in the 2007 state budget to develop infrastructure in the Georgian-controlled Didi Liakhvi Gorge of the South Ossetian conflict zone.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14671
 
February 23 – The ruling National Movement party said an anti-NATO campaign that has recently been pushed by a number of marginalized political forces in Georgia was sponsored by the Kremlin.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14679
 
February 23 – President Saakashvili said he had “full confidence” in Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli and his cabinet.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14680
 
February 24 – A portion of tin sheeting from the roof of the recently constructed terminal of Tbilisi International Airport was ripped off by strong winds.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14688
 
February 26-28 – President Saakashvili met with top officials from NATO and EU in Brussels.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14689
 
February 27 – The ruling majority and opposition in the Parliament have agreed to set up an inter-faction group to develop a bill that will provide additional guarantees for the protection of property rights.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14695
 
February 27 – A group of Abkhaz opposition MP candidates have unleashed criticism of Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh for interfering in their election campaign and hence violating election code of the unrecognized republic.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14696
 
February 28 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state-run daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta that the resumption of a normal dialogue with Georgia will depend on how Tbilisi behaves towards its breakaway regions and Moscow.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14701

^Up

March
 
March 1 – Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko started two-day official visit to Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14708
 
March 1 – Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church Ilia II left for Moscow for a four-day visit.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14709
 
March 3 – Abkhaz militia arrested three Georgians for “illegally crossing the border.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14713
 
March 3 – Parliament passed amendments to the law allowing citizens from five Arab Gulf states – the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman – to visit Georgia for up to 90 days without a visa.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14716
 
March 4 – Breakaway Abkhazia held parliamentary elections. The Georgian Foreign Ministry described parliamentary elections in breakaway Abkhazia as “another in a series of unlawful acts”, adding that “any kind of reference to the legitimacy of the so-called elections is immoral and cynical.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14719
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14727
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14728
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14729
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14733
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14734
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14741
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14742
 
March 5 – President Saakashvili visited Kazakhstan.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14723
 
March 7 – Moscow has stopped short of recognizing the March 4 parliamentary elections in breakaway Abkhazia but said it “respects” the polls, which “were a continuation of the democratic trends that were observed during the recent local self governance elections” in Abkhazia on February 11.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14736
 
March 9 – During a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on March 8, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili reaffirmed his country’s support for Japan’s bid to take a seat in the UN Security Council.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14749
 
March 10 – The Russian Foreign Ministry warned South Caucasus states not to consider the possibility of installing components for a U.S. missile defense system in the region.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14755
 
March 11 – The villages of Chkhalta and Azhara in the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia came under artillery and helicopter fire..
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14758
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14762
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14769
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14782
 
March 12 – A Georgian army helicopter MI-24 Hind crashed in the Dusheti District of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, about 50 kilometers away from Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14759
 
March 12 – A former leader of the opposition Conservative Party and ex-lawmaker Koba Davitashvili set up a new political party, the Party of People.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14763
 
March 13 – The Georgian Parliament passed a declaration supporting Georgia’s aspirations for NATO membership with 160 votes to 0.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14774
 
March 14-15 – Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli will pay a working visit to Germany.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14781
 
March 14 – President Saakashvili visited Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia, less than three days after the area was reportedly attacked by Russian army helicopters.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14784
 
March 15 – Russia’s VimpelCom launch a new mobile phone operator in Georgia under the Beeline brand name.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14792
 
March 16 – The United States will continue its efforts to help Georgia boost its energy security, visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell said at a news conference in Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14804
 
March 17 – Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze left for the United States.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14810
 
March 17 – Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said that he does not plan to resign, amid calls from the opposition.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14805
 
March 18 – Two people died and at least five were injured as a result of explosion in the Georgian-populated Gali District of the breakaway Abkhazia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14813
 
March 19 – President Saakashvili met with Tbilisi-loyal, self-imposed South Ossetian leader Dimitri Sanakoev, less than a week after he announced Tbilisi’s readiness to launch “official relations” with the Kurta-based alternative authorities.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14823
 
March 20 – A joint patrol of UN and Russian peacekeepers “did not observe any deployment of heavy weapons” in the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge, UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14829
 
March 20 – Police started installing of CCTV cameras in 70 major thoroughfare and public places in Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14830
 
March 21-23 – An informal, information session of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) over South Ossetian conflict meets in Istanbul.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=1483221
 
March 22 – Colonel David Nairashvili has been appointed as Commander of the Georgian Air Forces replacing Alan Lakoev.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14841
 
March 22 – President Saakashvili paid “brief, private, friendly visit” to Armenia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14843
 
March 23 – Foreign Ministers of breakaway Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnestria held talks in Moscow in frames of the Community for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR), an organization set up by three secessionist regions.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14850
 
March 24 – 550 servicemen from the 33rd Light Infantry Battalion of the Third Infantry Brigade left for Iraq.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14855
 
March 25 – Two Georgian servicemen have been killed in a clash with South Ossetian forces.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14857
 
March 27 – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin met with Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh in Moscow.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14867
 
March 27 – Tbilisi said it wanted Moscow to reimburse pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages for the alleged violation of the rights of hundreds of ethnic Georgians who have been deported from the Russian Federation.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14868
 
March 29 – U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza visits Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14878
 
March 30 – Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili visited Ukraine.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14889
 
March 31 – Thousands of people throughout Georgia have arrived in the medieval cathedral in Mtskheta, close to Tbilisi, to pay tribute to the late President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, whose remains were brought to Georgia for reburial, 13 years after he was buried in Chechnya.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14893

^Up

April
 
April 3 – Kazakhstan has pledged to direct at least 10 million tones of cargo annually to the Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway route, which is expected to go into operation after two and a half years.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14902
 
April 3-6 – A U.S. Congressional delegation led by Representative David Price visited Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14903
 
April 3 – Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said that the current crisis in Ukraine is an “internal matter.” He did, however, call on the Ukrainian leadership to resolve the dispute “within a legal framework.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14904
 
April 5 – The March 11 rocket attacks in the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia were “a major setback” to efforts to bring peace, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in his latest report to the Security Council.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14915
 
April 9 – The second plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of breakaway Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnestria was held in Moscow.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14921
 
April 10 – The Georgian government’s human rights record improved in some areas during the year, although serious problems remained, according to the U.S. Department of State annual report.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14924
 
April 10 – There is no cause for conflict between Georgians and Ossetians, Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church Ilia II said while visiting the South Ossetian conflict zone.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14926
 
April 17 – The law of Georgia on disciplinary responsibility and disciplinary prosecution of judges of common courts includes vaguely worded provisions that pose a real threat to the independence of the judiciary and ultimately to the rule of law, the Venice Commission said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14964
 
April 17 – Leaders of the opposition Industrialists party Gogi Topadze and Zurab Tkemaladze will met with Tbilisi-loyal, alternative leader of South Ossetia Dimitri Sanakoev.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14966
 
April 18 – Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks visited Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14971
 
April 19-21 – NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 65th Rose-Roth seminar held in Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14972
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14973
 
April 20 – Leader of the opposition Labor Party Shalva Natelashvili has demanded that British Ambassador to Georgia Donald McLaren be recalled from the country.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14984
 
April 21 – South Ossetian and Abkhaz leaders, Eduard Kokoity and Sergey Bagapsh, respectively held talks in Moscow.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14991
 
April 23 – The leader of the opposition New Rights party, MP Davit Gamkrelidze met with Tbilisi-loyal, alternative leader of South Ossetia Dimitri Sanakoev.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14993
 
April 23 – A court in the western Georgian city of Kutaisi released Pridon Chakaberia, head of the administration of Kvemo Bargebi village.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14995
 
April 23 – The parliamentary majority and a group of students, affiliated with the ruling party, have slammed the Republican Party activist Paata Zakareishvili, for making “harmful and irresponsible” statements.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=14999
 
April 25 – A Russian governmental delegation led by prime ministerial aide Gennady Bukaev held talks with the prime minister of breakaway South Ossetia, Yuri Morozov, in Tskhinvali.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15016
 
April 25 – President Saakashvili held talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. 
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15017
 
April 26 – Georgian Public Defender Sozar Subari has delivered a report to the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and Civil Integration on the country’s human rights record in 2006.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15022
 
April 27-30 – Georgian Defense Minister Davit Kezerashvili visited Iraq.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15037
 
April 30 – Georgian General Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili visited Azerbaijan.      
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15039
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15045

^Up

May

 
May 1 – The Georgian Ministry of Environment said it held an auction on May 1 and leased large tracts of forested land for 20 years. The announcement sparked protests by environmentalist groups. The auction has raised a total of GEL 7.7 million (about USD 4.5 million).
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15044
 
May 2 – A 14-member delegation of the U.S. army led by the Commander of U.S. Army in Europe, General David D. McKiernan arrived in Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15049
 
May 3 – Senior lawmakers from the ruling National Movement party praised South Ossetian alternative leader Dimitri Sanakoev for adhering to “a right position” and said their meeting with him was “very positive.”
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15054
 
May 3 – The authorities in breakaway Abkhazia released three Georgian students arrested on March 1.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15056
 
May 4 – Georgia is not planning to open talks with the U.S. on building an anti-missile radar site on its soil, Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15058
 
May 7 – Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli returned to Georgia last night after undergoing heart surgery in Houston, Texas on April 19.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15065
 
May 7 – Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves started a three-day official visit to Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15066
 
May 7 – Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili welcomed Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory in the French presidential elections and said that Sarkozy had always been a friend of Georgia’s. He also said that Sarkozy would be a future General Charles de Gaulle.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15072
 
May 8 – Two Georgian lawmakers from the opposition Industrialist Party were briefly detained by police in a hotel in Vienna, Austria, after local police, allegedly, took one of them for ex-Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15073
 
May 8 – The Georgian Parliament has passed a resolution condemning, as it put it, attempts to “provoke” riots and hooliganism in the streets of Estonian towns. The disturbances followed the Estonian government’s relocation of a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15079
 
May 8 – Parliament passed a resolution by 149 to 4 votes 8 to set up a provisional administrative entity in South Ossetia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15080
 
May 10 – President Saakashvili appointed Tbilisi-loyal South Ossetian alternative leader Dimitri Sanakoev as head of the provisional administration in South Ossetia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15089
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15100
 
May 10 – Two airplanes violated the Georgian airspace from the Russian Federation, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15093
 
May 11 – The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed a joint declaration at a summit in Krakow, Poland calling for increased cooperation in transporting oil and gas from Central Asia to Europe via the South Caucasus.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15105
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15104
 
May 12 – A Georgian policeman was injured in a shootout which occurred in the South Ossetian conflict zone.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15107
 
May 14 – Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze started a five-day visit to the Czech Republic.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15114
 
May 15 – Ukraine’s PrivatBank entered into the Georgian market after buying into 75% of shares of a small Georgian Tao Bank for USD 25 million.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15124
 
May 16 – Secessionist South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity reshuffled his cabinet.   
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15130
 
May 17 – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mahdi Mostafavi arrived in Tbilisi on a two-day visit. 
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15136
 
May 17 – President Saakashvili hosted visiting Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in Batumi, Adjara, where both of them opened a museum dedicated to Alfred and Ludwig Nobel.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15137
 
May 17 – Police arrested seven employees of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) and charged them with negligence. The case involved the disappearance of old banknotes – worth of GEL 96,000 – which were withdrawn from circulation by the NBG for destruction years ago.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15141
 
May 20 – Former lawmaker Guram Sharadze was shot dead in downtown Tbilisi. Police said a suspect was arrested shortly afterwards on a nearby street.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15150
 
May 21 – Opposition lawmakers demanded to find out who, or which state agency, ordered the demolition of a half-constructed Orthodox church in the Khelvachauri district of Adjara.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15152
 
May 23 – Public Defender Sozar Subari demanded the suspension of the chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Special Operations Department (SOD), Irakli Kodua, for his alleged involvement in the illegal arrest and torture of innocent men and the fabrication of evidence.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15160
 
May 23 – Tbilisi City Court found Irakli Batiashvili guilty of involvement in the 2006 summer’s alleged attempted coup and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15161
 
May 25 – Parliament, with its first reading, approved with 106 to 9 votes, a proposal giving the green light to free economic zones in Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15173
 
May 26 – President Saakashvili officially opened a new terminal in Batumi airport. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul also attended the opening ceremony.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15177
 
May 29 – Zviad Tsetskhladze, a businessman and former lawmaker, was found dead in his office in Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15184
 
May 29 – Russia partially resumed issuing visas to Georgian citizens, eight months after it was suspended by Moscow amid a spy row with Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15185
 
May 30 – A parliamentary delegation, led by Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, left for St. Petersburg to participate in the Parliamentary Assembly of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15189
 
May 31 – Georgian and Russian negotiators have failed to make a breakthrough in talks over Russia’s possible accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15199
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15204
 
May 31 – The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Tbilisi of playing “political games” with the water supply to the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali.  
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15202
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15211

^Up

June
 
June 1 – Georgia has called on the UN Secretary General’s Group of Friends, involving France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and the U.S., to persuade Sokhumi to resume UN-mediated talks, known as the Geneva Process.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15203
 
June 1 – Georgia’s economic performance continued to be impressive despite the external shock associated with Russia’s economic embargo, IMF officials said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15208
 
June 2 – The Center of Ossetian Culture and Art was opened in Tbilisi.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15212
 
June 4 – President Putin reiterated that the Kosovo case would set a precedent and may even cause negative consequences for Russia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15215
 
June 4 – South Ossetian and Abkhaz leaders, Eduard Kokoity and Sergey Bagapsh respectively, pledged to provide mutual support in case of hostilities with Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15214
 
June 4 – The European Union granted Georgia the right to align itself with political declarations adopted in the framework of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15219
 
June 6 – Police arrested six Georgians in Vienna suspected of stealing a Stradivarius violin worth an estimated EUR 2.5 million and a Vuillaume violin, worth EUR 120,000.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15236
 
June 7-8 – Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili visited Sweden.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15235
  
June 7 – Water supply was restored to the breakaway South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, ending almost a two-week long crisis.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15239
 
June 8 – Tbilisi is taking “imaginative” steps towards resolving the South Ossetian conflict, but its new strategy may backfire “unless it proceeds cautiously and engages all actors,” the Brussels-based think-tank, International Crisis Group, (ICG) said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15240
 
June 8 – Parliament approved amendments to the 2007 state budget, envisaging increases in state expenditure by about GEL 600 million (USD 357.1 million).
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15241
 
June 8 – Parliament passed with 145 to two votes a proposal to increase troop levels in Iraq from the current 850 to 2,000, making Georgia one of the biggest contributors to US-led operations in terms of per capita troop deployment.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15242
 
June 8 – Turkmenistan and Georgia have agreed to set up an inter-governmental commission to boost cooperation in energy issues.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15245
 
June 9 – A South Ossetian militiaman was killed in a clash with Georgian police.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15252
 
June 10 – Russia has pledged to gradually lift its trade embargo against Georgia and respect Georgia’s territorial integrity, President Saakashvili said – a day after he met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of an informal CIS summit.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15251
 
June 10 – President Saakashvili met his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, on the sidelines of an informal summit of CIS leaders in St. Petersburg.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15255
 
June 11 – Russia and Abkhazia have denied that Sokhumi is planning, with Moscow’s assistance, to build a military base in the Gali district of the breakaway region
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15259
 
June 11 – By lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 years, “Georgia has gone against international and European standards,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15287
 
June 12 – A 50-year-old man died as a result of flooding in the mountainous Racha region of western Georgia.
https://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15265
 
June 1