Georgia: The case of Gigi Ugulava

David McAllister Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Gigi Ugulava, an opposition politician and one of the leaders of the “European Georgia” party, was sentenced to thirty-eight months in prison by the Supreme Court of Georgia on 10 February. In Strasbourg the Chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee David McAllister (EPP, DE) issued…

Georgia’s ‘Lelo’ political movement gathers pace

The new public movement in Georgia, known as ‘Lelo’, has been gaining momentum in recent weeks, with 12 December 2019 being named as the date at which the movement will be launched as a political party.  The movement was founded by Georgian businessman Mamuka Khazaradze, the founder of TBC Bank and Anaklia Development Consortium.  The…

Building Georgian statehood 

(This article was first published in International Policy Digest at https://intpolicydigest.org/2019/05/10/building-georgian-statehood/)   Parliamentary elections will be held in Georgia in November 2020 and the outcome promises to be the most crucial since the country gained independence 28 years ago, writes Nino Burjanadze Our democratic principles and traditional values will be at stake. The growing disillusionment of the…

Is Georgia Backsliding On Corruption?

Corruption Perception

Georgia is ranked number 41 alongside Spain and Latvia, writes James Wilson.   This is according to the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index 2018 published last month, – a slight improvement in the country’s ranking compared with 2017. The biggest improvements in tackling corruption were made by former President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose reforms helped…