Day: December 24, 2025
The United States will provide USD 10.4 million in communications equipment and other related goods as a grant to Georgia’s Ministry of Defense, according to a decree signed by the Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on December 22.
“The authority is granted to the Ministry of Defense of Georgia to receive communications equipment and other types of goods defined by the grants allocated to the Ministry of Defense of Georgia by the Government of the United States of America,” the decree states.
The approval covers the transfer of goods under five separate grant programs – PB-B-WFK, DT-B-WAZ, PB-B-WFJ, DT-B-WBC, and DT-B-WBA – with a total value of USD 10,431,459.90, according to the decree. No additional details were provided regarding the delivery timeline or operational use of the U.S.-supplied equipment.
The grant comes amid Georgian Dream’s tightening oversight of Western-funded assistance, including the adoption of a Georgian version of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and amendments to grant legislation requiring foreign donors to obtain government approval before disbursing funds to local entities in Georgia. The restrictions mainly target non-governmental and media organizations.
It also arrives against the backdrop of a continued rupture in U.S.-Georgia relations. In November 2024, Washington suspended its Strategic Partnership with Georgia, and later imposed sanctions on Georgian officials and ruling Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Since returning to the office in January 2025, the Trump administration has largely remained silent on Georgia, despite Georgian Dream’s efforts to present itself as ideologically aligned with Trump and repeated messages about Tbilisi’s willingness to reset relations.
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Several protesters reported being summoned by a court over administrative proceedings for “obstructing movement of people” during a December 17 sidewalk rally in Tbilisi, in what appears to be the first direct enforcement of stricter laws that extend protest restrictions to pedestrian areas.
They now face up to 15 days of administrative detention, with their court hearings scheduled for December 25 and 26.
“A new wave of intimidation and repression has begun,” Ani Akhmeteli, a protester, wrote on Facebook on December 24, publishing copies of the police report. “Today I received a call from the City Court, accusing me of violating Article 174¹, paragraph 10 of the Code of Administrative Offences,” Akhmeteli noted, referring to the amendments adopted in December and imposing restrictions on protesting on the sidewalk, among others.
A copy of the police report published by Akhmeteli shows her being accused of “deliberately obstructing people’s traffic” during the parliament rally on December 17, minutes after police issued a “warning.” According to the report, video evidence “shows a citizen who at 20:35 stands on the sidewalk and obstructs the movement of people.”
Daily parliament rallies on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue have been largely taking place on sidewalks after police started pushing demonstrators off the road in November and detained over a hundred demonstrators for “blocking the road.”
The ruling Georgian Dream party, however, fast-tracked further restrictions in December, introducing an advance notice rule for planned rallies and limiting rallies that “obstruct” the people’s traffic, among others. The amendments mandate police to issue binding instructions changing the location or route of planned assemblies.
Failure to notify police, comply with binding instructions, or clear the road or sidewalks upon police order may result in administrative detention of up to 15–20 days, and criminal liability carrying a sentence of up to one year if repeated.
Following the law’s entry into force, police officials warned protesters in person and later, on December 17, ordered them to disperse from the sidewalk in front of the parliament, but protesters have ignored the warnings.
On December 22, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued binding formal warnings to protest organizers, instructing them to confine rallies on Rustaveli Avenue to the parliament stairs and “adjacent areas” and “not to obstruct the movement of transport or people.”
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