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British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili with the Wardrop Baton during the eighth round of the dialogue at Lancaster House in 2023. Official image.

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

UK suspends ‘strategic dialogue’ and defence talks with Georgia

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

The UK has announced it has suspended a number dialogue formats with Georgia, citing the government’s anti-democratic actions. In an interview with the Georgian news agency IPN published on Tuesday, the British Ambassador to Georgia, Gareth Ward, said the move came in response to democratic backsliding and anti-Western rhetoric by the Georgian government. He said the UK had frozen the Wardrop Dialogue, an annual British-Georgian strategic dialogue format, cancelled high-level talks betwee

Javanshir Feyziyev. Photo via javanshir.feyziyev.com.

Azerbaijan

UK National Crime Agency seeks £15 million from Azerbaijani MP

by Ismi Aghayev

•1 min read

The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is seeking the forfeiture of £15 million ($20.5 million) in assets held by the relatives of prominent Azerbaijani MP Javanshir Feyziyev. The NCA reportedly believes that the money had been transferred to the UK through the so-called Azerbaijani Laundromat, a multi-billion ‘complex money-laundering scheme’ uncovered by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and partner outlets, including Le Monde and The Guardian, in 2017.

A protest outside the US Embassy on 2 November. Photo: Dvin Titizian/OC Media.

Armenia

Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh protest diplomatic missions in Yerevan

by OC Media

•3 min read

Refugees displaced by the war in Nagorno-Karabakh have held a series of demonstrations in front of the US and UK embassies as well as the EU and UN missions in Armenia. Almost 1,000 women and children gathered on Monday in front of the American Embassy calling for US recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state. They also called on the US to sanction Turkey and Azerbaijan and send humanitarian assistance for those forced to flee the conflict. The authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh ha

Georgia

Georgia expels Russian diplomat over UK nerve agent attack

by OC Media

•2 min read

Georgia has expelled a Russian Diplomat from the country in solidarity with the UK, over the Salisbury chemical attack. Georgia joins at least 26 countries who have expelled Russian intelligence officers and diplomats in the wake of the attack. On Thursday, Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave the diplomat seven days to leave Georgia. The diplomat, who is a staff member at the Russian Federation Interests Section at the Embassy of Switzerland in Tbilisi, has now been declared a per

1992–1993 War in Abkhazia

Abkhazian memorial in Scotland to be ‘reinstalled unchanged’

by OC Media

•3 min read

A recently-removed memorial to victims of the Georgia–Abkhazia war in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock will be reinstalled unchanged, local authorities in Scotland have told OC Media. They say the memorial will remain this way until ‘a universally acceptable alternative wording and content’ can be agreed by all sides. The memorial, with the inscription ‘in memory of those from our twin town of Sukhumi who died in the Abkhazian/Georgian conflict 1992–1993’, also bearing an Abkhazian flag,

Abkhazia

Abkhazian memorial in Scotland to be reinstalled ‘with revised wording’

by OC Media

•4 min read

A recently-removed memorial to victims of the Georgia–Abkhazia war in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock will be reinstalled ‘with revised wording’, Scottish and Georgian officials say. Abkhazian leaders have denounced the move. According to East Ayrshire Council, of which Kilmarnock is a part, the memorial’s removal will not be permanent. Davit Dondua, Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia, said on 16 November that ‘after the the memorial is corrected, it will be returned to its place’. East

Azerbaijan

Investigation reveals secret $3 billion UK-based Azerbaijani slush fund

by OC Media

•2 min read

Azerbaijani authorities laundered almost $3 billion in the UK between 2012–2014, which was used to bribe high level EU and UN figures, an investigation by the the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) shows. Following the investigation, the OCCRP’s website was blocked in Azerbaijan. The press service of the President of Azerbaijan has denied the accusations, blaming ‘George Soros and Armenian lobby’ for the investigation. The Azerbaijani Laundromat, as the investigat