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The US Helsinki Commission held a hearing yesterday on ‘Georgia’s Anti-American Turn’, which focused on ‘the global consequences of Georgia’s slide into authoritarianism’. Former President Salome Zourabichvili and former Defence Minister Tinatin Khidasheli testified at the hearing, which also included debates on ‘US policy options, such as the passage of the bipartisan MEGOBARI Act, to assist the people of Georgia as they seek to maintain their independence and longstanding, mutually beneficial
Over the course of two days, from 2-3 September, Tbilisi City Court sentenced 20 people from two to two and half years in jail and one protester to eight and a half years in jail on drug charges — another protester was cleared of drug charges. Since the summer, media has been banned from filming inside the courtrooms, court buildings, and courtyards, but since the ban came to force, the practice has been such that the court bailiff and police have been more relaxed on this ban in the courtyard
A day after the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in April, I found myself at the Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan. Despite it being the day after, there was still a flow of people going up and down the hill where the memorial is located. Many came carrying flowers and taking a quiet moment to reflect on one of the greatest, if not the greatest, tragedies in Armenian history. On display in the park adjacent to the memorial were the flags of countries that officially recognise the Armenia
The first championship belt in Chechnya’s history went to Khamzat Chimaev, a close friend of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, on Saturday. In the main fight of the evening, Chimaev faced South African Dricus du Plessis and scored an emphatic victory. The win was clean, the fight spectacular — but behind it all lay numerous nuances. To begin with, Chimaev, like many other Russian athletes, had long been banned from entering the US. It seems the ban was lifted for him personally thanks to the interve
