Month: May 2025
Grigol Gegelia of the opposition coalition Strong Georgia said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) plans to abolish the Directorate General for European Integration and dismiss around 250 employees under the guise of reorganization. According to Gegelia, the employees targeted were among those who signed a joint statement at the end of last year supporting Georgia’s European Union integration and criticized the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party’s decision to halt the EU accession process.
“With this action, the criminal regime [GD government] has now formally and explicitly declared that European integration is no longer a priority for this Foreign Ministry,” Gegelia said. He called the move “yet another major failure of Georgian diplomacy” and described the restructuring as a political purge.
According to Gegelia, about 250 ministry employees, which amounts to around 30-40% of the staff, will be dismissed. He said the decision reflects the ruling party’s retreat from EU aspirations and accused the GD authorities of dismantling “what was once the most important ministry.”
Giorgi Kobakhidze, a former secretary at Georgia’s embassy in Lithuania, claimed in a Facebook post that he was dismissed for signing a petition supporting the country’s EU integration.
In addition, Georgian media outlets published an internal letter reportedly sent by GD Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili to ministry staff. According to the letter, the first phase of this reform involves a reorganization of the ministry, which includes changes to the structure of its central office and diplomatic missions abroad. It also outlines plans to open new diplomatic and consular posts and to establish four political directorates with 10 departments and 25 divisions. The new structure of the Foreign Minister will come into effect starting July 1 this year.
Civil.ge asked the Ministry to comment regarding the reported reorganization, which allegedly includes the abolition of the stand-alone Directorate General for European Integration, and the alleged layoffs. In response, the Ministry stated: “The information circulating about the abolition of the Directorate General for European Integration within the Ministry is not true. As a result of the reform, a Political Directorate for European Affairs will be established, which will merge the Departments of Europe and European Integration. For its part, within the European Integration Department, four divisions will be created to serve the country’s EU integration agenda. In pursuit of these objectives, the creation of the Directorate will further contribute to the effective coordination of relations with European countries.”
On November 29, following GD’s decision to abort the EU accession process, MFA’s employees issued a joint statement, stressing that the enlargement window that is now open may never be reopened, and if Georgia stops on this path, it risks facing isolation.
The letter also reiterated the employees’ commitment to Georgia’s national interests and Constitution. It highlighted that Georgian diplomats had long worked toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration in line with the will and historical choice of the Georgian people. The decision to suspend the accession process until 2028, they said, “does not correspond to the strategic interests of the country.”
In April, TI-Georgia reported that since December 2024, 700 public servants have been reportedly dismissed from various state agencies on political grounds, many of whom had publicly protested the GD government’s shift on EU integration. Reported dismissals within the Ministry of Defense have also raised concerns of a broader political purge.
Also Read:
- 13/01/2025 – Politically Driven Purge Guts Civil Service
- 02/12/2024 – Kobakhidze Alludes to Purges, Says Civil Service is “Self-Cleansing”
- 01/12/2024 – Georgian Civil Servants’ Statement
- 29/11/2024 – Education Ministry Staff Distance Themselves from GD EU-Turn
- 29/11/2024 – Defense Ministry Staff Distance Themselves from GD EU-Turn
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Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced that Türkiye is a strategic partner of the “Three Seas Initiative” initiated by countries bordering the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas. Türkiye’s “Strategic Partnership” application was accepted by member countries at the 10th Summit.
Volkswagen’s revenue plummeted by 40.6% in the first quarter of 2025, marking one of the most significant downturns in the German automaker’s recent history. According to official reports, the company generated just €2.18 billion in revenue since the start of the year—a sharp drop compared to the same period in 2024, Azernews reports.
The Tbilisi City Court today, May 1, ordered Giorgi Bachiashvili, a former aide to billionaire and Georgian Dream party founder and honorary chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili, to pay him 9,000 bitcoins, worth about USD 867 million at the current rate.
Bachiashvili, who left Georgia on March 9 in violation of bail conditions that barred him from leaving and is now in exile, has seven days to pay before authorities begin seizing property belonging to him and his family members, according to his lawyer, Sopho Kurtauli.
The court had previously sentenced Bachiashvili in absentia to eleven years in prison for embezzling a large sum of cryptocurrencies and money from Ivanishvili and laundering it. In 2023, he was ordered to post a bail of GEL 2.5 million (USD 900,000) and banned from leaving the country.
In January 2025, Bachiashvili claimed that Ivanishvili had sent an intermediary offering regular payments in cryptocurrency in exchange for dropping the prosecution, calling this a “blackmail.” Bachiashvili, who denies the charges, says the case against him is politically motivated. He fell out with Ivanishvili in 2022.
In February 2025, prosecutors brought new charges of negligence against him, and the court imposed an additional GEL 50,000 (USD 18,000) bail, upholding the travel ban. After he fled Georgia, authorities opened another case against him for illegally crossing the border.
His international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, said on April 23 that he had received credible information from two foreign intelligence agencies warning of threats to Bachiashvili’s life.
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On April 30, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted its twelfth decision under the agenda item “The Council of Europe and the Conflict in Georgia,” reiterating its firm support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and condemning the continued occupation of the regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia by the Russian Federation. The decision calls on Russia to fully and unconditionally withdraw its military forces from the Georgian territory and comply with its international obligations, including the EU-mediated 2008 ceasefire agreement.
The Council welcomed the Reykjavík Declaration, which reaffirmed Member States’ collective demand that Russia respect Georgia’s internationally recognized borders and cease actions aimed at de facto annexation. Ministers condemned Russia’s continued military exercises, borderization activities and integration treaties in both regions.
The Committee stressed that all actions by Russia intended to alter the status of Georgia’s regions are illegal and carry no legal effect. It also denounced the recent so-called “parliamentary elections” of Tskhinvali and “presidential elections” of Abkhazia.
More than 16 years after the 2008 war, the Russian Federation “continues to impede peaceful conflict resolution,” the decision said, citing illegal military presence, human rights violations, and the installation of fences and barriers that divide communities.
The decision highlighted a series of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), establishing responsibility of the Russian Federation, as the state exercising effective control over the occupied territories, for grave violations, including arbitrary detention, killings, torture, and displacement of ethnic Georgians. Notably, the Council welcomed the 2023 ruling ordering Russia to pay 130 million euros in damages to thousands of affected by the 2008 war Georgian citizens.
Humanitarian concerns were also underscored, including restricted freedom of movement, denial of medical evacuations, destruction of homes, and systemic discrimination against ethnic Georgians—particularly in the Gali and Akhalgori districts.
The Council strongly condemned the ongoing illegal detentions of Georgian citizens, including Kristine Takalandze, Giorgi Mosiashvili, and Irakli Bebua, who was released on March 30 and expressed grave concern over cases resulting in deaths, such as that of Genadi Bestaev.
Furthermore, the council opposed the imposition of the death penalty in Abkhazia for drug-related offenses and expressed alarm over the erasure of Georgian cultural heritage in the occupied regions.
The Committee reaffirmed support for Georgia’s peace initiatives and stresses the urgent need to resume the suspended Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) in Gali since 2018. It also urged the Russian Federation to allow unrestricted access for Council of Europe monitoring bodies to the affected regions.
Among other things, the Council reiterated its call to the Russian Federation as the State exercising effective control to create conditions for the voluntary, safe and dignified return of all IDPs and refugees; to cease any form of ethnic discrimination towards the residents of the Georgian regions, first and foremost, the ethnic discriminatory measures against the Georgian population; to immediately cease policies leading to human rights violations in both regions of Georgia; to cease arbitrary detentions of persons, including in the context of so-called “illegal border crossings” and to re-open “crossing points”; to immediately releaseKristine Takalandze, Giorgi Mosiashvili and all other illegal detainees; to cease violations of the right to education in schools and preschools, including education in the native Georgian language, in both Georgian regions.
The decision concluded with calls on Russia to execute all ECtHR judgments and cooperate with the International Criminal Court regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the occupation.
The Council encouraged the Secretary General to continue biannual reporting on the situation and to engage in dialogue with Russia and Georgia to secure monitoring access and accountability.
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