The Daily Beat: 8 December
Kremlin’s man in occupied Abkhazia, Inal Ardzinba, announced restrictions on USAID-funded projects, declaring USAID Regional Director Persona Non-Grata. In his statement, Ardzinba claimed that “by formulating vague goals and objectives,” the project managers were misinforming occupied Abkhazia’s foreign ministry and promoting Georgian policy. According to Ardzinba, the decision was prompted by ‘discrepancies found in project questionnaires,’ notably the ones from the UN Development Programme’s Partnership for Sustainability, which is funded by USAID.
Public Defender Levan Ioseliani is visiting Kyiv, where he met with Ukraine’s Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksandr Korniyenko, discussing the issues related to human rights cooperation between the two countries. According to the Public Defender’s Office, Levan Ioseliani also participated in the high-level international human rights conference “Freedom of Fear,” dedicated to the 75th anniversary of adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The so-called state security committee (also known as KGB) of the occupied Tskhinvali Region reported about the initiation of “criminal cases” against two Georgian citizens, Giorgi Meladze and Dito Korinteli, for “deliberate” and “illegal crossing of the state border.” In late November, the Georgian State Security Service announced the illegal detention of three Georgian citizens by the Russian occupation troops near the Tskhinvali Region occupation line. Later, one detained citizen was released, while the whereabouts of two others were unknown until now.
A high-ranking clergyman, Metropolitan of the Akhalkalaki and Kumurda eparchies Nikoloz Pachuashvili, has been publicly accused of alleged sexual harassment and abuse. Several women told Radio Tavisupleba that they were victims of sexual harassment and violence at the hands of Nikoloz Pachuashvili, with some claiming they were minors at the time they were sexually abused by a high-ranking cleric many years ago. One of the alleged victims, Lela Kurtanidze, told Radio Tavisuplaba that it took more than ten years to gather the courage to speak out. The Metropolitan himself considers the woman’s story to be slander, the purpose of which is to discredit him.
The Data of the Day
Preliminary data published by the National Statistics Office suggest that foreign direct investments reached USD 316.0 million in the third quarter of 2023, marking a 61.5% decrease compared to the same period of the previous year. According to the Statistics Office, the decline in FDI was due to the reduction of the amount of debt instruments and reinvestment.
The United States topped the list of foreign direct investors with USD 51.8 million (16.4% of total investment), followed by the United Kingdom with USD 45.8 million (14.5%), the Netherlands with USD 45.3 million (14.3%), Turkey with USD 23.3 million (7.4%) and China with USD 19.3 million (6.1%). The top five investor countries collectively represented 58.7% of total investment.
