The Daily Beat: 12 August
Georgia finished the Paris Olympics with a total of seven medals and 24th place in the overall team standings – its highest-ever finish and a significant achievement for the 3.5 million-strong nation. In the latest match on August 11, 27-year-old freestyle wrestler Givi Macharashvili gave the country its final silver medal after losing to Bahrein’s Akhmed Tazhudinov in the 97kg category.
“Even in Google [Mike Turner] is mentioned as one of the most corrupt Congressmen, which is very sad. And it is also sad that such people come and criticize the “Georgian Dream,” while these same people, and not only them, sometimes refer to other countries that have not yet had democratic achievements, as oases,” said the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, about Republican Congressman Mike Turner, who visited Georgia last week along with Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission urged the U.S. State Department to “crack down” on the call centers “that sponsor Georgian Dream’s antidemocratic campaign against the Georgian people.” According to the U.S. Helsinki Commission, Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party “relies on dark money from a network of scam call centers around the world to fund its operations and harass its opposition.”
The Times of Israel reported, citing Kan news, that the IDF has issued a directive ordering all off-duty soldiers currently in Georgia or Azerbaijan to return to Israel immediately. Both countries are adjacent to Iran, although only Azerbaijan has a direct border with the Islamic Republic. According to the Times of Israel, the IDF did not provide further details, saying it was following a new assessment of the situation, further adding that there were no changes to guidelines for civilians.
A man who was severely beaten by an inspector from the Special Tasks Department of the Interior Ministry died in a hospital two weeks after the incident. The Department is headed by the infamous Zviad Kharazishvili (a.k.a. “Khareba”) and is notorious for playing a key role in the persecution and beatings of the demonstrators against the Foreign Agents Law, during the 2023 and 2024 popular protests.
One of the leaders of the “Coalition for Changes,” Nika Melia, was physically assaulted by an alleged supporter of the Georgian Dream while speaking with journalists in the Georgian town of Samtredia. The incident was live-streamed by almost all opposition TV channels who were attending the opening of the new party office. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, decried the incident, describing it as unacceptable. According to the RFE/RL, the Interior Ministry launched an investigation into the case.
Another Georgian citizen, Vaso Kardava, 34, was killed while fighting in Ukraine. The Foreign Ministry confirmed the information to Civil.ge. He was reportedly killed by a Russian artillery attack near Soledar-Siversky in eastern Ukraine. Vaso Kardava was an internally displaced person from the occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia. The latest casualty brings to 55 the unofficial number of Georgian citizens who have died fighting in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
