Day: December 9, 2025

Prime Minister Ali Asadov says the reconstruction of Garabagh and East Zangezur remains at the center of Azerbaijan’s state investment agenda, noting that large-scale work continues under the direct leadership of President Ilham Aliyev.

Azerbaijan recorded a notable increase in its oil bitumen exports in the first ten months of the year, reflecting stronger foreign demand and expanded shipment volumes, Azernews reports.

In the future, 30% of calls to ASAN Service’s call center will be handled by artificial intelligence, the agency announced, Azernews reports, citing Jeyhun Salmanov, Deputy Chairman of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of Azerbaijan.

President Aliyev Meets with Slovakia’s National Council Speaker  Caspian Post

On International Anti-Corruption Day, December 9, Transparency International (TI) Georgia, the local leading corruption watchdog, said Georgia has become a “captured, kleptocratic state,” warning that corruption is likely to deepen under the current system of the ruling Georgian Dream government.

“In such countries, the sole goal and motivation of the ruling elite is personal enrichment, which is achieved by robbing citizens and the state,” the watchdog said, adding that resources accumulated through corruption are then used “to maintain power.”

TI-Georgia accused Georgian Dream founder and billionaire Honorary Chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili of heading a captured state by empowering a “specific group” to enrich itself through corruption and using it to subjugate state institutions. As a result, the organization said, increased corruption and greater damage to the country should be expected.

According to the watchdog, the process of “state capture is complete,” with “no independent state body” left able to openly address corruption. It said kleptocracy “is on the rise,” citing the scale and nature of documented cases of elite corruption, and described the GD government’s anti-corruption efforts as a “sham,” saying only former ruling party members are targeted, while “hundreds of documented cases of elite corruption are ignored.”

TI-Georgia said the government’s decision to abolish the Anti-Corruption Bureau comes after the agency was repurposed into a “repressive mechanism” against non-governmental organizations rather than a body to fight corruption.

The organization said Georgia is ignoring international anti-corruption commitments, has lacked a National Anti-Corruption Strategy “for more than five years,” and has legally restricted cooperation between state institutions and civil society by excluding organizations from decision-making processes.

“For Georgia to be able to effectively fight corruption, the democratic system must be restored in the country, and a real process of building independent institutions must begin,” the watchdog said.

The ruling Georgian Dream party maintains it is waging an “uncompromised” fight against corruption, prosecuting several former high-ranking officials. Civil society organizations, including TI-Georgia, however, counter that elite corruption “remains widespread” despite those actions.

Also Read:

• 30/10/2025 – TI-Georgia: Elite Corruption ‘Remains Widespread’ Despite GD’s Crackdown on Ex-Officials
• 24/10/2025 – Ex-PM Garibashvili Indicted on Serious Money-Laundering Charges as Court Sets Bail
• 12/09/2025 – TI-Georgia: 308 Officials Declared GEL 22 Million in Gifts in One Year
  

The “Mara’ee 2025” event held in the Kingdom of Bahrain stood out as a remarkable occasion that brought together the country’s ancient traditions, historical agricultural culture, and modern outlook, Azernews reports.