Tbilisi’s techno clubs have taken to the frontlines of the anti-government demonstrations, including enacting a mass strike at the risk of their own livelihoods.
Georgia’s national wrestling team made headlines on Friday after a photo was published online of the team wearing T-shirts of a North Ossetian MP to the background of the Russian flag. The backlash follows a series of controversies around the 10th anniversary of the August War, including in restaurant chain Machakhela, nightclub Bassiani, and with Radio Free Europe’s Georgian service. The photo was first published by Georgian news website On.ge on Thursday. It showed several wrestlers and t
Thousands of people rallied on 12 May against the nightclub raids and police violence, demanding the PM and Interior Minister’s resignations. The rally in front of Tbilisi’s parliament building followed a police raid on popular nightclubs Bassiani and Café Gallery. According to Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, the eight arrested drug dealers were apprehended before the raids, not in the course of them as previously assumed. [Read more about the raids on OC Media: Eight arrested in ‘anti-dru
Masked police raided two popular Tbilisi nightclubs, Bassiani and Café Gallery under the pretence of detaining drug traffickers on the night of 11 May. Police forcibly removed club-goers from the venues and clashes ensued. According to the Interior Ministry’s statement, eight suspected drug traffickers aged 21–30 were arrested following three-month-long ‘intensive investigative activities’ in several Tbilisi nightclubs. More people were detained in the aftermath of the raids, including dr
Georgia’s judiciary has come under fire from NGOs and officials after a 27-year-old man charged with stabbing three people, including a police officer, was released on bail. The incident happened on 13 January in Tbilisi outside the Bassiani nightclub. Tamaz Kvlividze stabbed two security guards and a police officer with a knife, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, reportedly after being denied entry to Bassiani. Kvlividze was initially released on ₾30,000 ($12,000) bail, sparking
