Tens of thousands of fans gave the national football team a hero’s welcome as they returned to Georgia after an impressive debut at Euro 2024. Tbilisi’s central Freedom Square and Rustaveli Avenue were fully crowded, as fans gathered to pay tribute to the national team and played the national anthem. Fans booed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s unusually brief address, while they applauded the appearance of President Salome Zurabishvili.
The Defense Ministry has confirmed the media reports that the Su-25 (NATO specification “Frogfoot”) of the Georgian Defense Forces Air Command has crashed near a military airport near the southern Georgian town of Bolnisi, during what is described as “routine training.” The pilot, identified as Kakhaber Zurabishvili, is reported dead.
Asked at the daily briefing on July 1 whether the U.S. is sending mixed messages by sanctioning individuals over the Foreign Agents Law while also inviting Georgian officials to Washington, Principal Deputy Spokesman of the U.S. State Department Vedant Patel responded that “it’s important that also we continue to engage with appropriate [Georgian] officials.” According to Patel, Georgia is “a country we continue to have a range of issues that we want to prioritize in the context of that bilateral relationship with them.”
The Migration Department of the Interior Ministry expelled 26 foreigners from Georgia from Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Russia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, and other unspecified countries in June, the MIA said on July 2. The expulsions were based on the Georgian law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons.
The Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, a pan-European political assembly representing local and regional authorities from the 46 CoE members, issued a statement expressing its “deep concern” about the “tensions and increasing polarisation…fuelled by the adoption of the legislation which does not align with European democratic norms and standards.”
The Tbilisi City Court remanded in custody Omar Okribelashvili and Saba Meparishvili, who were arrested on May 14 during protests against the law on foreign agents. The two individuals are charged under the second part of Article 187 of the Criminal Code, which deals with damage to or destruction of property, and is punishable by three to six years’ imprisonment when committed in groups. According to the Interior Ministry, they deliberately damaged the iron protective barrier placed near the Parliament building.
