issue#1516

Issue no: 1516

• AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 • PUBLISHED WEEKLY

PRICE: GEL 2.50

In this week’s issue...

Georgian Journalist Mzia Amaglobeli Named Finalist for 2025 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize NEWS PAGE 2

Ukraine Latest: Kremlin Rejects NATO Troops as Peacekeepers in Ukraine as Fighting Escalates across Key Regions POLITICS PAGE 3

Prosecutors Target 7 NGOs with Sabotage, Treason Charges POLITICS PAGE 4

FOCUS

ON MAQRO CITY TBILISI A mixed-use development reshaping Samgori’s role in Tbilisi’s urban growth

PAGE 6

“Wars like this tend to go very slowly. Until suddenly they go very fast” — Colonel (Ret.) Frank Sobchak POLITICS PAGE 5

Education Georgia’s First Mental Health Festival: IstheRelevant Way Out? Sairme as a Therapeutic Space SOCIETY PAGE 7

BY TEAM GT

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or the first time in Georgia, a unique event is bringing together mental health professionals, wellness experts, and the general public to explore new approaches to emotional and psychological well-being. Organized by the Mental Health Center “Dialogue,” the inaugural Mental Health Festival is taking place in Sairme, a serene and picturesque resort town in the heart of Georgia’s mountainous landscape. The event offers an immersive experience that focuses on selfcare, healing, and the promotion of mental health through a diverse range of activities and therapeutic sessions.

One of the highlights of the festival is the participation of Frederico Marquez, a certified facilitator of Holotropic Breathwork. Marquez will be leading transformative sessions that guide participants through powerful breathing exercises aimed at releasing emotional blockages and promoting deep inner healing.

Continued on page 8

Gomi Mountain Fest: Above the Clouds, Beyond the Dancefloor CULTURE PAGE 9

Introducing Mariam Dolidze – A Rising Star from the 1st BI Auction Competition for Young Artists CULTURE PAGE 10

Nina Tsagareli on Leading Night Serenades Into Its 17th Season CULTURE PAGE 11

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NEWS

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

Georgian Journalist Mzia Amaglobeli Named Finalist for 2025 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

BY TEAM GT

A wine presentation in Germany. Source: 1TV

Georgian Wine Showcased in Düsseldorf

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

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Georgian wine tasting event was recently held in Düsseldorf, Germany, organized by renowned German influencer and sommelier Toni Askitis and supported financially by the National Wine Agency of Georgia.

Germany, one of Europe’s largest wine importers, has become a strategic market for Georgian wine since 2020.

The tasting took place at Toni Askitis’ popular wine bar, Pelican Fly, and also in a local park under the event name

‘Tasting in the Park.’ Askitis, who shares wine trends and industry news on his popular #AskToni channel, introduced guests to a variety of Georgian wines.

The National Wine Agency is seeking to promote Georgian wine in various locations across Germany this year. The campaign includes: • Tasting seminars for wine professionals, trade representatives and consumers in multiple German cities • Participation in international wine exhibitions • Targeted advertising and media campaigns Wine tours in Georgia for media, sommeliers and sales representatives are also being run.

Tbilisi Metro to Gain New Exits at Marjanishvili and Akhmeteli

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zia Amaglobeli, founder and director of Netgazeti and Batumelebi, has been named among the finalists for the 2025 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

Alongside Amaglobeli, the list includes Ukrainian journalist Maksym Butkevych and Azerbaijani journalist Ulvi Hasanli.

The aim of the prize is to recognize outstanding civil society action in the defense of human rights in Europe and beyond.

“Mzia Amaglobeli has been a pioneering Georgian journalist since 2000 and is the co-founder of the independent media outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti.

Despite politically motivated imprisonment and harsh treatment, which followed her exposure of police violence during protests, her courageous actions helped draw attention to repression against the media and political violence, with the goal of safeguarding Georgia’s democratic future.

“Her arrest and subsequent sentencing in 2025 turned her into a symbol of resilience in the face of state repression and a defender of press freedom, underscoring the vital role journalists play in protecting human rights,” the prize committee’s announcement reads.

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize was established in 2013 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation.

Since its creation, the prize has been

Mzia Amaglobeli in court. Source: Batumelebi/Netgazeti

awarded to María Corina Machado (Venezuela), Osman Kavala (Turkey), Vladimir Kara-Murza (Russia), Maria Kalesnikava (Belarus), Loujain al-Hathloul (Saudi Arabia), jointly to Ilham Tohti (China) and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (Balkans), Oyub Titiev (Russia), Murat Arslan (Turkey), Nadia Murad (Iraq), Lyudmila Alexeyeva (Russia), Anar Mammadli (Azerbaijan), and Ales Bialiatski (Belarus).

The award ceremony is traditionally held in Strasbourg during the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly, usually at the end of September or the beginning of October, with the Assembly’s President announcing the laureate.

On August 6, Judge Nino Sakhelashvili sentenced Netgazeti and Batumelebi founder Mzia Amaglobeli to two years in prison.

The charge of assaulting a police officer was reclassified under Article 353, Part 1 of the Criminal Code: resisting a police officer to obstruct public order, suspend or alter their duties, or compelling them to commit an obviously unlawful act, carried out with violence or threat of violence—punishable by a fine, house arrest of up to two years, or imprisonment from two to six years.

Amaglobeli delivered her closing remarks to the court on August 4, rejecting the prosecution’s offer of a plea bargain as unacceptable and offensive.

She was arrested on January 12, 2025, under criminal procedure and has been held in pre-trial detention for more than 200 days. Despite the lack of legal grounds for her continued detention, Judge Sakhelashvili kept her in custody.

During her imprisonment, Amaglobeli’s eyesight has sharply deteriorated.

Ajet to Launch Ankara–Tbilisi Flights

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

G A Tbilisi metro train. Source: bmg

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

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bilisi City Hall has announced plans to construct additional exits at two of the capital’s busiest metro stations, Marjanishvili and Akhmeteli Theater. Mayor Kakha Kaladze stated that the project’s goal is easing passenger flow, improving pedestrian access, and ensuring safer movement in the city.

The project concept was developed with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Currently in the design stage, the detailed planning is expected to be finalized by early 2026. Following completion, City Hall will announce a tender for the construction phase. Kaladze expressed gratitude to ADB for its cooperation, stressing the importance of the

partnership in advancing urban mobility projects in Tbilisi.

Kaladze noted that the introduction of second exits will help reduce congestion both inside and around the metro stations.

“These new exits will improve pedestrian accessibility, turning nearby neighborhoods into more attractive and accessible areas. Commuters will be able to enter and exit the stations faster and more comfortably while overall pedestrian safety will be significantly enhanced,” he said at the municipal government meeting.

The mayor added that relieving pressure during peak hours was a particular priority. In recent years, Akhmeteli Theater station had experienced heavy overcrowding, but earlier improvements helped partially resolve the issue. “From the very beginning, we underlined that adding new entrances and exits would remain a priority for the city’s transport development,” Kaladze stated.

Anri Okhanashvili Steps Down, Mamuka Mdinaradze Appointed Head of SSSG

BY TEAM GT

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nri Okhanashvili has resigned as Head of the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) to assume the role of Prime Minister’s Advisor on national security affairs.

In his statement, Okhanashvili emphasized the importance of addressing global and regional security challenges through analytical work and thanked the Service staff for their joint achievements.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Mamuka Mdinaradze, Executive Secretary of the Georgian Dream party, will succeed Okhanashvili as the new Head of the State Security Service.

eorgia’s aviation sector continues to expand, with low-cost airline Ajet set to begin regular Ankara–Tbilisi–Ankara flights at the end of September. The service will operate four times a week, every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, after the approval from the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency.

Ajet, a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, enters the market at a time when air traffic between Georgia and Turkey is at its most intensive among neighboring countries. In 2024, more than 1.2 million passengers traveled between the two nations, making up for 47% of Georgia’s

An Ajet flight. Source: Business Travel News Europe

total passenger flow with its neighbors.

The announcement comes as Georgia records unprecedented activity across its airports. In the first seven months of 2025, more than 20,766 international and domestic passenger and cargo flights were operated, a 16% increase compared

to the same period in 2024.

During the same timeframe, Georgian airports served 4,601,048 passengers, up 13% year-on-year. At the moment, approximately 745 flights per week operate across Georgia’s three international airports.

Singer Khatia Tsereteli Among 12 Arrested in Prostitution Case

BY TEAM GT

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welve people, including Georgian singer Khatia Tsereteli, have been arrested on charges of facilitating prostitution and providing premises for such activities, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced.

Tornike Marsagishvili, head of the Division for the Fight against Trafficking and Illegal Migration, says the arrests followed a court ruling and joint investigative actions by the Central Criminal Police Department and the Prosecutor General’s Office in Tbilisi and the Samegrelo region over the past 24 hours.

Authorities also closed 13 facilities allegedly linked to the case.

Among those detained are both Georgian and Chinese nationals. Law enforcement officials said covertly obtained audio and video recordings confirmed

Singer Khatia Tsereteli. Source: FB

that facility managers and administrators regularly supported women engaged in prostitution by providing them with premises in exchange for cash.

Investigators allege that administrators also helped connect women with clients, profiting directly from the sexual services provided. Searches reportedly uncovered money believed to have been

obtained through the facilitation of prostitution.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the facilities’ main source of income was derived from such activities. Those charged face up to four years in prison under Article 254 of Georgia’s Criminal Code.

The investigation is ongoing.

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

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Ukraine Latest: Kremlin Rejects NATO Troops as Peacekeepers in Ukraine as Fighting Escalates across Key Regions COMPILED BY ANA DUMBADZE

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he Kremlin has once again dismissed the idea of NATO troops being deployed in Ukraine as part of any peace settlement, even as fighting intensifies along the frontline.

During its daily briefing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that US efforts to broker peace in Ukraine are “very important” and could help resolve the protracted conflict.

However, he criticized European proposals for security guarantees for Ukraine, emphasizing Moscow’s longstanding position that no NATO forces should be stationed in the country.

Peskov added that any high-level peace talks with Kyiv would need thorough preparation to be effective. Responding to reports of recent strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, he reiterated that Russian forces only target military and military-connected sites.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming trip to China, which Peskov described as “unprecedented.” Putin will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, alongside more than 20 world leaders, before visiting Vladivostok on September 5.

Ukraine confirmed that Russian troops have crossed into the eastern Dnipro-

petrovsk region, attempting to establish a foothold. Kyiv, however, denied reports that Russia has captured two villages.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed entry into the area over the past three months as part of its push from Donetsk.

Battlefield analysts from DeepState reported that Russia occupies two villages—Zaporizke and Novohryhorivka— marking the first claimed advances into Dnipropetrovsk. Ukraine’s armed forces general staff, however, countered that Zaporizke remains under Ukrainian control, while “active hostilities” continue near Novohryhorivka. Russia’s defense ministry released images it claims show troops inside Zaporizke.

Unlike Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Crimea, which Russia has annexed, Moscow has not claimed Dnipropetrovsk. Reports suggest that Putin seeks control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions—the Donbas—as a precondition for ending the war. Any further Russian advances into Dnipropetrovsk could strengthen Moscow’s negotiating position in future peace talks.

Ukraine’s air force reported downing 74 of 95 drones launched by Russia this week, with 21 drones striking nine locations. Two civilians were killed in Donetsk, and 12 others were injured. A mass drone attack on Sumy disrupted electricity and water services, while Poltava experienced power outages after Russian strikes on an energy facility.

Additional attacks injured civilians in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson,

A firefighter works at the site of the Russian drone strike, August 27, 2025. Source: REUTERS

affecting 36 settlements including the regional center.

Attacks on energy infrastructure, historically concentrated in winter months, are increasingly occurring in summer.

Ukraine’s energy ministry reported over 2,900 attacks since March 2025 alone.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries have disrupted at least 17% of Russia’s refining capacity, halting operations at facilities in Volgograd, Samara, Saratov, and other regions. Long-range drone strikes have become a central element of Kyiv’s strategy to weaken Russia’s war economy.

In the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces have successfully countered a Russian penetration east and northeast of Dobropillya. Reports indicate that Ukrainian troops have seized key settlements such as Nove Shakhove and Zapovidne, push-

ing Russian forces back from strategic positions along the Dobropillya-Kramatorsk highway. These actions threaten to encircle elements of the Russian 51st Combined Arms Army operating within the penetration.

Russian military command has reportedly ceased efforts to exploit the penetration towards Dobropillya, indicating a shift in their operational focus.

Ukrainian partisan groups continue to disrupt Russian logistics and military operations in occupied territories. Recent actions include the ambush of a Russian supply convoy in Kalynove, Luhansk Oblast, resulting in casualties among Russian soldiers. Additionally, a railway control cabinet was blown up near occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, further hindering Russian supply lines.

US President Donald Trump com-

mented on the conflict during a White House cabinet meeting. He stressed that economic sanctions could be imposed on Russia if a ceasefire is not agreed, while cautioning that both sides share responsibility for the ongoing war. Trump highlighted his relationship with Putin, claiming he has the influence to help resolve the crisis and emphasizing the human toll, with “thousands of young people dying every week.”

After a summer marked by tense diplomacy and stark strategic realities, it is increasingly clear that Europe is largely on its own in defending Ukraine—and by extension, its own security—against Russian aggression, as US support under Trump becomes minimal, unreliable, and transactional. Despite a show of unity with President Zelensky in Washington, European leaders were forced to accept an unbalanced trade deal and make sweeping defence pledges to appease Trump, who has refused NATO membership for Ukraine, downplayed sanctions on Russia, and offered only vague, limited backing for a Europeanled reassurance force. With US intelligence-sharing curtailed and no guarantee of American military support, Europe faces the daunting challenge of organizing and sustaining a credible security commitment to Ukraine amid internal political divisions, strategic doubts, and memories of past peacekeeping failures—raising urgent questions about whether the EU can deter Russia without dependable US backing.

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POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

Prosecutors Target 7 NGOs with Sabotage, Treason Charges

BY TEAM GT

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bilisi City Court this week approved a motion by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia to freeze the bank accounts of seven major non-governmental organizations (NGOs), sparking widespread outrage among civil society actors and legal experts, who warn that the government is intensifying a campaign of repression against dissenting voices.

The targeted organizations include: the Civil Society Foundation, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), Defenders of Democracy, Georgian Democratic Initiative (GDI), Center for Social Justice, and the Union Safari.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the action is part of a sweeping investigation into alleged acts of sabotage, collaboration with hostile foreign-controlled entities, and the funding of activities aimed at undermining Georgia’s constitutional order and national security. The charges fall under three of the most serious provisions in the Georgian Criminal Code—Articles 318, 319, and 321 Prima— which carry potential sentences of up to 20 years or life imprisonment.

Officials claim the organizations pro-

vided material support during the 2024 protests, which escalated into violent clashes with law enforcement. Protesters were allegedly supplied with gas masks, batons, and helmets—purchased with NGO funds—and NGOs are further accused of encouraging resistance and financing legal defenses for arrested demonstrators.

The freeze has been met with unified condemnation from NGO leaders, activists, and legal professionals, who see the charges as politically motivated and designed to dismantle civil society.

Vakhushti Menabde, a constitutional law expert and member of the Social Democracy Movement, said the government is no longer simply persecuting critics—it is engaging in “full-scale repression.”

“This isn’t about agents, grants, or registration laws anymore. The state is now invoking the gravest criminal statutes— treason, sabotage, and aiding foreign hostile organizations,” Menabde wrote on social media. “This represents a turning point. Sentences range from 7 years to life. The regime is taking legal warfare to an unprecedented level.”

The move has also drawn criticism from international observers. US Senator Gene Shaheen, a long-time supporter of Georgia’s democratic development, condemned the charges and account freezes in a public statement.

“Providing legal assistance to protesters detained by the Georgian Dream

government is not a crime—nor is it sabotage against the state,” she said.

Senator Shaheen expressed solidarity with Georgian civil society and emphasized the importance of protecting democratic institutions: “I continue to stand with the Georgian people and members of civil society who are trying to preserve Georgia’s democracy.”

SAFARI UNION REJECTS “SLANDEROUS” ACCUSATIONS Among the groups targeted, Union Safari—an organization with a 24-year record of supporting women and girls— issued a strongly worded statement rejecting the state’s claims as “completely unfounded and slanderous.”

“The information spread by the Prosecutor’s Office that Safari’s finances were used to organize violent acts and purchase equipment is entirely baseless,” the organization said. “There is not a single piece of evidence against us.”

Safari emphasized that its mission has always centered on combating genderbased violence and advancing equality.

“We are proud to have helped thousands of women and children escape violence, seek justice, and rebuild their lives. The freeze on our accounts is not just an attack on us—it’s an attack on the very idea of dignity and human rights.”

Calling on the government to “stop Russian-style repression against its own people,” Safari also appealed to the inter-

national community to respond to what it called an “unprecedented attack on civil society.” Despite the seizure, the organization vowed to continue providing voluntary support to victims of violence and called on those in need to reach out: “Safari is a team of freedom-loving patriots, and we will continue to serve the people of Georgia as long as we can.”

Legal Experts Warn of Authoritarian Shift Tamta Mikeladze, Director of the Equality Policy Program at the Center for Social Justice, described the freeze as part of a “systematic and organized attack” by the ruling Georgian Dream party against independent civic institutions.

“They are using Russian-style authoritarian laws to make it impossible for NGOs to operate,” she said. “We represent over 60 victims of torture and abuse before international courts and defend dismissed civil servants who believe in Georgia’s European future. That’s why we’re being targeted.”

Mikeladze warned that the charges are not only unlawful, but politically engineered to silence accountability: “If there’s any sabotage happening, it’s coming from within the government— against the constitution, civil society, and democratic values.”

Keti Khutsishvili, Executive Director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, added that the court ruling was delivered

without concrete evidence and based solely on “template legal quotes.”

“This is an attempt to halt our work, to dismantle human rights protections, and to derail Georgia’s path toward European integration,” she said.

In a joint statement, the affected NGOs vowed to resist the crackdown and continue their advocacy: “We will not be intimidated by seizures, repression, or threats. We will keep defending the rights of the vulnerable, exposing injustice, and supporting Georgia’s European and democratic future through all legal means.”

BACKGROUND AND OUTLOOK The Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed that the investigation is ongoing and that further actions may follow. The charges include: • Article 318: Sabotage – up to 20 years or life imprisonment in aggravated cases • Article 319: Collaboration with foreigncontrolled hostile entities – 7 to 15 years • Article 321 Prima: Financing actions against the constitutional order – up to 20 years Legal experts and watchdogs warn that the invocation of these charges could signal the beginning of a broader campaign against critical organizations, especially those involved in advocacy, transparency, human rights, and electoral integrity.

Prime Minister: “The Constitution Is the Pillar of Georgia’s Sovereignty and Democratic Stability”

BY TEAM GT

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CoE Experts Urge Withdrawal of Georgia’s “Foreign Agents Registration Act”

BY TEAM GT

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he Council of Europe’s Expert Council has published its opinion on Georgia’s “Foreign Agents Registration Act” (FARA).

Based on the document, “the measures envisaged in the Act will have a very significant impact on freedom of assembly and several other guaranteed rights.

Therefore, in the view of the Expert Council, it would be advisable to withdraw the Act and refrain from taking any steps toward its implementation.”

The document further notes: “Many provisions of the Act certainly do not meet the legal requirements necessary to justify restrictions on rights guaranteed by the European Convention. More fundamentally, there are serious doubts as to whether even some of the provisions in the Act can be regarded as

pursuing a legitimate aim.”

Additionally, the Expert Council highlights that the inevitable effects of the Act—such as preventing NGOs from seeking foreign support to achieve goals fully in line with European standards, imposing excessive obligations to disclose personal data, granting unlimited powers to request additional information, requiring complex record-keeping, and introducing disproportionately heavy fines—cannot be considered as measures necessary in a democratic society.

“In such circumstances, implementation of the Act would cause severe and unjustified harm to civil society in Georgia, would be incompatible with the wide range of obligations undertaken by a member state of the Council of Europe, and therefore would be entirely inappropriate. Accordingly, it would be advisable to withdraw the Act and refrain from taking any steps toward its enforcement,” the document concludes.

n August 24, as Georgia celebrated Constitution Day, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze addressed the nation during a special event at the Presidential Palace. In his remarks, he reflected not only on the legal importance of the Constitution, but also on its deeper meaning for Georgia’s identity, its hardfought independence, and the democratic progress the country has made over the past three decades. The Prime Minister highlighted the challenges and achievements that have shaped Georgia’s constitutional journey and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to protecting the stability and sovereignty it represents.

“The Constitution is a mirror of the state—its evolution reflects the broader journey of a nation,” he said. “This is particularly true for Georgia. Over the past 30 years, the path of Georgian statehood has closely followed the path of our Constitution, the fundamental law of our country.

“That journey has not been easy. In the first two decades, more than 30 amendments were made to the Constitution—many driven by the political interests of the ruling powers at the time. This instability had a profound impact on the country’s development.

The Constitution was treated with indifference, and its frequent revisions mirrored the broader instability of the state.

“In 2016, we made a conscious decision to take a different path. We established the State Constitutional Commission with a clear goal: to develop a modern, democratic, and stable constitutional framework. Our ambition was to create a European-style constitution—one that would provide a solid foundation for Georgia’s long-term democratic development.

“I am proud to say that this goal has

PM Kobakhidze speaks at the Constitution Day event. Source: FB

been fully achieved. With the adoption of the new Constitution in 2018, Georgia now has a stable constitutional framework that meets European standards and supports the democratic progress of our country.

“It is especially noteworthy that in the seven years since the current Constitution came into force, no changes have been made to its core provisions. This stability has directly contributed to the steady development of our state. It has also played a key role in preserving peace and stability across the country.

Our government has not once attempted to amend the Constitution to serve narrow political interests.

“I have consistently reminded my colleagues that the process of constitutional revision is intentionally complex— requiring broad public involvement, extensive debate, and a high threshold in Parliament. This complexity reflects our respect for the Constitution and our commitment to upholding it.

“For this reason, we firmly rejected demands to include any provisions related to constitutional amendments in political agreements. Despite harsh responses from some political opponents—and regrettably, even undiplomatic reactions from certain representatives of the United

States and the European Union—we stood firm. It was clear to us that such pressure aimed to undermine the dignity of our Constitution. Thanks to our principled stance, we succeeded in protecting Georgia’s national interests and constitutional integrity.

“The first article of any constitution often reflects a country’s core historical challenge. In Germany, for example, the first article affirms the right to human dignity, shaped by the tragic lessons of fascism. In Georgia’s case, the first article enshrines state sovereignty—a principle rooted in our own experience of having that sovereignty denied for much of the 20th century.

“It is no coincidence that "state sovereignty" opens our Constitution. For decades, safeguarding our independence has been Georgia’s central struggle. And today, the Constitution continues to serve as the primary guarantor of our sovereignty.

“We must continue to protect and strengthen our Constitution—just as it protects our statehood and independence. I am confident that for many years to come—and hopefully for centuries— our Constitution will remain a steadfast defender of Georgia’s sovereignty,” the PM concluded.

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

5

“Wars like this tend to go very slowly. Until suddenly they go very fast” — Colonel (Ret.) Frank Sobchak INTERVIEW BY VAZHA TAVBERIDZE

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olonel (Ret.) Frank Sobchak, PhD, a professor at the US Naval War College, compares the war in Ukraine to a brutal boxing match of attrition. In his view, drones have upended traditional doctrines, creating a stalemate that recalls World War I, while the decisive factors remain willpower, industrial capacity, and outside support. Sobchak argues Russia cannot achieve large-scale breakthroughs, but warns that Ukraine’s survival ultimately hinges on US resolve.

Disclaimer: Colonel (Retired) Frank Sobchak emphasizes that the views he expresses are solely his own and do not represent the views, policies or positions of the US Naval War College, the US Navy, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.

LET’S START WITH YOUR TAKE ON THE ONGOING RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE, WHICH SEEMS TO BE FARING BETTER THAN MANY EXPECTED. WHAT’S THE REALITY ON THE BATTLEFIELD? I think this really plays into the broader question of where the conflict stands.

In many ways, it resembles a World War 1-style static war: Russia making tiny, incremental gains — sometimes just a square kilometer a day. According to the Institute for the Study of War, if Russia continued advancing at this rate, it would take them 300 years to occupy Ukraine.

BUT THE TEMPO HAS INCREASED IN RECENT WEEKS. THE SITUATION BECAME EXTREMELY DIRE NEAR POKROVSK AND KUPYANSK, WHERE THE RUSSIANS ACHIEVED A TACTICAL BREAKTHROUGH, AND THEN WERE PUSHED BACK BY UKRAINIAN FORCES, PREDOMINANTLY AZOV, ALBEIT PARTIALLY. WHAT’S YOUR ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT SITUATION? I’d look at this more strategically than tactically. Tactically, what we see is two boxers in a ring trading blows. The strategic question is: who tires first? Who folds and goes down? That ties into two things: the defense industrial base and willpower. On willpower, both sides remain extraordinarily strong. There’s nothing from Russia suggesting they’ve abandoned their maximalist war aims.

Ukraine’s determination is also intact.

Yes, there are fissures and cracks on both sides, but nothing decisive.

At the tactical level we see World War I level stasis. Part of this is caused by that war of wills, the two boxers who are still trading blows. The other major factor causing a static front is drones. In WW1, it was caused by machine guns, artillery, and poison gas; today it boils down to drones. Their impact is twofold.

First, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance: each side now has a far clearer picture of what’s happening behind enemy lines than in almost any past conflict.

WHICH MAKES TACTICAL SURPRISE MUCH HARDER. Absolutely. But because surprise is now exponentially harder, whenever one side does manage to pull it off, the rewards are even greater. Ukrainians showed that when they achieved operational level surprise, if not strategic surprise, during their Kursk offensive.

The second factor is that drones have become, in many ways, the poor man’s air force — the poor man’s close air support. They’ve allowed Ukraine to achieve something like air parity. Russia certainly does not have air dominance, contrary to early predictions from many Western analysts. Drones have leveled the playing field: both sides can launch effective strikes on infantry and armor, making large-scale troop concentrations and rapid advances nearly impossible.

SO NO MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS TO EXPECT ANYTIME SOON? It’s unlikely. But having studied military history since I was 10, my impression is that wars like this tend to go very slowly… until suddenly they go very fast. To return to the boxing metaphor: when one fighter is finally ground down and can no longer keep his guard up, that’s when the knockout punch lands. Once the cracks we see now start to widen and shatter, then we could see a rapid collapse of one of the two sides — provided the war drags on long enough to get there.

HOW PAINFUL A PUNCH WOULD IT BE IF RUSSIA CAPTURED POKROVSK? WOULD THAT COUNT AS A STRATEGIC BREAKTHROUGH, MAYBE EVEN A KNOCKOUT BLOW? I don’t think so. It would certainly give Russia a tactical advantage, but not a decisive one. The idea that they could exploit such a breakthrough with largescale maneuver warfare strikes me as extremely unlikely, unless the Ukrainian army itself shattered — and that’s nowhere in sight. The most likely outcome of a Russian capture of Pokrovsk would simply be a tactical advance. For one thing, Russia no longer has much maneuver capability. They have already burned through most of their Cold War–era stockpiles. The massive supply of armor and vehicles we used to associate with Soviet forces? That’s gone. They simply don’t have that capability, at least not right now.

And even if they somehow did, they don’t have the training to conduct combined-arms maneuver warfare. That is a very complex undertaking. It requires extensive training and preparation at all levels—leadership down through the chain of command.

Colonel (Ret.) Frank Sobchak. Photo by Alonso Nichols

opposite of the American way. The American way is: send a bullet, not a man. Use technology, artillery, or aircraft to solve the problem. The Russian way is: send men. Keep feeding them into the meat grinder until the grinder breaks.

That’s why large-scale maneuver warfare is so unlikely for them—and why I don’t see an operational breakthrough happening.

SPEAKING OF THE OUTSIZED IMPACT DRONES HAVE GAINED IN THIS WAR, WOULD IT BE FAIR TO SAY THEY HAVE TAKEN THE CROWN FROM ARTILLERY AS THE KING OF THE BATTLEFIELD? Artillery has traditionally been thought of in terms of mass: you can concentrate battalions, regiments, companies, and deliver a tremendous amount of firepower into a single area. If you look at the sheer numbers of drones now being produced domestically by Ukraine, there’s unquestionably “mass” there too—though each individual drone round often carries less explosive power than a 152- or 155-millimeter shell. So in terms of pure firepower, artillery probably still has the edge.

But what we’re really seeing is a shift.

Particularly on the NATO side, there was a perception that artillery was evolving away from massed barrages toward precision fire. Now drones are filling that gap.

ANOTHER ASPECT OFTEN DISCUSSED IS ARTILLERY’S IMPACT ON GROUND FORCES. UNLIKE HUMAN SOLDIERS, A DRONE CAN BE SHOT DOWN, BUT IT WON’T SUFFER SHELL SHOCK. IT DOESN’T HAVE A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN BECAUSE MISSILES ARE RAINING FROM THE SKY.

At the tactical level we see Absolutely. And drones also have their World War I level own way of inflicting devastating psychological terror. Watch the videos of stasis… In WW1 Russians panicking, running for cover, diving into bunkers. Often, a first drone it was caused by breaches a position, then a second flies in after them. It’s personal. There’s a machine guns, terrifying nature to being hunted in such a way, as opposed to being subjected to artillery, and indiscriminate artillery fire. That said, can also “shell-shock” the human poison gas; today AND THAT KIND OF MANEUVER you crews who operate and guide the drones, WARFARE IS ESSENTIALLY NATO I suppose. it boils down to DOCTRINE, NOT RUSSIA’S. Exactly. The Russian way of war is the IF THE GUIDANCE AND SECONDdrones

TO-SECOND OPERATION GRADUALLY SHIFTS INTO THE HANDS OF AI, WHICH SEEMS TO BE THE PREFERRED DYNAMIC, DOES THAT TIP THE BALANCE DECISIVELY TOWARD DRONES? Yes, for sure. We’re on the cusp, if we haven’t already arrived, of a revolution in warfare, with AI providing terminal guidance for drones. So far, we haven’t seen drones with complete AI control, where the human is entirely out of the loop. But the key word there is yet. As the struggle grinds on, as countries grow more desperate in this boxing match of attrition, options that once seemed below the belt and unconscionable may start to look like the best course of action.

HOW MUCH HAS THE INTRODUCTION OF DRONES ALLEVIATED THE ACUTE MANPOWER SHORTAGE UKRAINE HAS BEEN SUFFERING FROM? It’s played a very important role. Drones have become central to Ukraine’s defense industrial base. There’s even talk of producing up to a million drones a year.

That scale would absolutely help offset some of the manpower shortages.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE RUSSIANS? HOW WELL ARE THEY KEEPING UP AND ADAPTING? The Russians have shown themselves to be quite adaptive. The old stereotype of Russia as purely a World War I or II-style meat grinder underestimates their ability to innovate, and we’re seeing that now.

At the same time, their industrial base is bigger. Much of what we’ve seen from Russia’s drone capabilities, particularly the strikes on Ukrainian cities, which have become more frequent lately, are powered by Iranian drones, especially the Shaheds. Increasingly, many of those are produced domestically inside Russia. They’ve also developed their own systems, like the Rubicon, and they’re ramping up production of interceptor drones. That could be a real problem for Ukraine unless it adapts further and stays one step ahead in the innovation race.

The bigger strategic question is whether Russia’s allies will continue to step up.

North Korea has provided millions of artillery rounds and tens of thousands of soldiers, with reports of more soldiers on the way. Will that continue? Will Iran

keep supplying them at the same volume, now that it has other preoccupations?

That’s unclear. And, frankly, the single biggest factor remains what the United States does. To put it bluntly, Ukraine’s success depends on the US. With half of Ukraine’s military aid coming from America, if that ever goes away, it would create a profound strategic problem. And US policy since 2014 has been, let’s just say, erratic.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE DEAL PRESIDENT TRUMP STRUCK WITH NATO — EUROPEANS BUYING ARMS FROM THE US TO GIVE TO UKRAINE. DOES IT CARRY THE SAME LIMITATIONS AS BEFORE? COULD WE SEE, FOR EXAMPLE, TOMAHAWKS INCLUDED IN SUCH A PACKAGE? IF IT’S ALL ABOUT TRANSACTIONS, I’M SURE NATO WOULD DISCOVER SOME PREVIOUSLY HIDDEN COFFERS TO OPEN, PROVIDED THE US IS WILLING TO SELL. It does indeed appear that using NATO as an agent to purchase and then deliver weapons seems to be the new US policy.

Whether or not that carries the same limitations as before is still to be seen, but if I had to guess I don’t think it will change the equation significantly.

Whether or not Tomahawks will be included is also up in the air, but I would offer that there is no single weapon system that would turn the tide in favor of either side. The core of the conflict is about national will, defense industrial base, and manpower. Victory for one side or the other will only come when one of those boxers collapses from exhaustion.

KYIV HAS PRESSED AHEAD WITH ITS OWN PRODUCTION OF THE NEW FLAMINGO MISSILE — A SYSTEM MANY SAY IS COMPARABLE, AND IN SOME AREAS EVEN SUPERIOR, TO THE AMERICAN COUNTERPART. HOW SIGNIFICANT COULD THIS BE FOR THE BATTLEFIELD BALANCE? While Ukraine’s new Flamingo missile certainly is a tactical innovation, I would put it in the category of Tomahawk cruise missiles from the previous question. No single weapon system is likely to decisively tilt the balance of power towards either side.

6

BUSINESS

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

MAQRO CITY TBILISI: A Mixed-Use Development Reshaping Samgori’s Role in Tbilisi’s Urban Growth

BY KESARIA KATCHARAVA

I

n the past decade, Tbilisi’s real estate market has seen rapid expansion, primarily in the central districts and northern suburbs. However, the eastern Samgori district, despite its geographic proximity to the city center, has long remained underdeveloped in terms of modern residential and commercial infrastructure. That pattern is beginning to shift.

At the heart of this change is MAQRO CITY TBILISI, a large-scale, mixed-use development led by MAQRO Development. Unlike many residential-only projects across the city, MAQRO CITY TBILISI integrates housing, retail, business facilities, and hospitality, including the internationally recognized Mövenpick Living brand. The project is not positioned as a luxury compound, but rather as a comprehensive urban environment designed to be both affordable and multifunctional.

RESIDENTIAL OFFERING FULLY RENOVATED HOMES AT BUDGET-SENSITIVE PRICES One of the most distinctive features of MAQRO CITY TBILISI is its approach to housing. Unlike most new residential projects in Tbilisi, where units are sold in a semi-finished state ("green frame" or "white frame"), MAQRO CITY TBILISI delivers fully renovated apartments a significant financial and practical advantage for homebuyers.

This model removes the renovation burden from the buyer and reduces postpurchase costs significantly, making the apartments more accessible for first-time homeowners and middle-income families.

Moreover, payment plans are designed to be as flexible as possible, reflecting the company’s intent to reach a broader market segment, not just premium buyers.

Despite these benefits, the pricing remains competitive within the midmarket segment, especially considering the added value of integrated infrastructure and renovation.

prestige and economic function that few other developments in the area currently provide.

MAQRO CITY TBILISI is contributing to the evolution of Samgori from a peripheral district into a mixed-use urban zone the area, making the commercial components more viable and contributing to the economic activation of the Samgori district.

MÖVENPICK LIVING - A STRATEGIC ADDITION TO THE PROJECT

INFRASTRUCTURE, ACCESSIBILITY, AND LONG-TERM VALUE From an urban planning perspective, large projects like MAQRO CITY TBILISI can have an outsized impact on infrastructure. As the development grows, it is likely to encourage public and private investment in roads, utilities, and transport connectivity in the surrounding area, much like similar large-scale projects have done in other districts of Tbilisi.

This also has implications for real estate values. While central districts remain expensive and largely saturated, Samgori offers a rare combination of price accessibility and development potential. As infrastructure improves and services expand, the long-term investment outlook becomes more favorable not just for buyers in MAQRO CITY TBILISI, but for the district more broadly.

luxury tower, nor is it an experimental urban utopia. Its significance lies in its scale, its functional integration, and its affordability, elements that are increasingly rare in Tbilisi’s fast-growing real estate market.

By delivering fully renovated homes, providing business and retail infrastructure, and incorporating an international hotel brand, MAQRO CITY TBILISI is contributing to the evolution of Samgori from a peripheral district into a mixeduse urban zone.

Whether it becomes a model for similar developments elsewhere in the city remains to be seen. But as of now, it is one of the few large-scale projects in Tbilisi combining urban scale with economic accessibility, and that alone makes it worth watching, both by residents and by the broader development community.

Unlike many A core component of the development The project is branded around the idea residential-only While MAQRO CITY TBILISI offers is Mövenpick Living, a branded hotel of being a “Place that unites.” Unlike For years, Samgori has lacked the kind housing, its structure reflects a deliber- and serviced apartment concept from many slogans in real estate marketing, projects across the of investment seen in areas like Vake, ate attempt to build a more complete the internationally recognized Möven- this one reflects a structural reality: Saburtalo, or Didi Dighomi. But its loca- and functional urban space. Commercial pick brand. While the hospitality market MAQRO CITY TBILISI brings together city, MAQRO CITY tion directly connected to key transpor- spaces are integrated at the ground level, in central Tbilisi has grown steadily, few residential life, commerce, employment, tation arteries and metro lines makes it and the business centers within the com- international hotel brands have ventured and tourism in a single, accessible loca- TBILISI integrates tion. one of the few remaining urban zones plex are designed to serve not only small into the eastern districts.

Mövenpick’s presence in Samgori does This concept has practical urban value. housing, retail, with potential for high-density, mixed- and medium-sized enterprises, but also large companies and corporations, as several things: Instead of contributing to the fragmented, use development.

• Introduces international hotel stand- single-use zoning that characterizes business facilities, MAQRO CITY TBILISI’s entry into they offer a substantial number of modmuch of Tbilisi, the development proSamgori signals a tangible shift in the ern, fully equipped office spaces that ards to an underserved district • Attracts both business and tourist motes a more integrated lifestyle. Resi- and hospitality, district’s trajectory. By combining resi- cater to a wide range of business needs. dential units with commercial zones, This multi-functionality is not just a visitors, increasing economic activity dents live near workplaces, essential services, and green spaces, and the pres- including the offices, and hotel infrastructure, the design choice, it addresses a real gap in beyond the city center • Creates local employment opportu- ence of a hotel introduces a level of project is not only attracting new resi- Tbilisi’s urban planning, where many dents, but also drawing attention from residential neighborhoods lack basic nities in hospitality and service sectors international visibility rarely associated internationally • Adds long-term investment value to with the district. businesses and service providers. This services within walking distance. recognized This approach has the potential to the district through brand recognition shift may accelerate Samgori’s transition from a primarily residential and indus- reduce resident dependence on com- and tourism infrastructure SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION Mövenpick Living By bringing a high-profile hotel brand TO TBILISI’S URBAN LANDSCAPE trial neighborhood to a more dynamic muting and support local economic activity. It also increases foot traffic in to Samgori, the project adds a degree of MAQRO CITY TBILISI is not a flagship urban district. brand SAMGORI - FROM PERIPHERAL DISTRICT TO DEVELOPMENT ZONE

NOT JUST RESIDENTIAL - A PROJECT WITH BROADER URBAN FUNCTIONS

“A PLACE WHICH UNITES”

SOCIETY

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

7

Is Relevant Education the Way Out? OP-ED BY NUGZAR B. RUHADZE

S

eptember is coming fast, bringing the new school year in, but it is not like it used to be in our good old days. Things have changed since then: the First of September, the beloved first day at school after the summer off-school time, has moved to September 15, and schools are now called public in compliance with the Western academic model known as the Bologna Process—a voluntary intergovernmental educational cooperation among EU member countries.

In the United States, for instance, the school system seems to be somewhat different, if not a little more complicated, than in Sakartvelo. In America, the school system is concentrated on the so-called K–12 structure, meaning from kindergarten to 12th grade, including elementary school from grades one to four, middle school from the fifth to the eighth, and high school from the ninth to the twelfth grade. Students go to either free public schools or quite costly private ones. Homeschooling is an option too.

The curriculum includes subjects like math, English, and science, with an emphasis on critical thinking, and often includes a strong focus on extracurriculars like sports. To compare, in Georgia, general education spans over 12 years and comprises three steps: primary – six years, basic and middle – three years each. Primary and basic education are compulsory in the country. Schools in Georgia, like in the West, can be both public and private. General education schools operate based on national educational plans, projects, and curricula.

The state budget allocates only 7.5 percent for educational purposes, which doesn’t seem to be much, but that’s just the way it is. Meanwhile, the predominant idea in the country is that if anything can help Georgia to someday find itself among the developed nations of

the world, it is the relevant education of its younger generation—the kind of education that is compatible with the contemporary socio-economic standards and demands of our time.

How to achieve that? The answer to this key question is where the nation is stuck—there is not even one person in this country who could come up with a panacea or at least some practicable remedy that would solve the problem.

The general emphasis is being placed on teaching the English language and computer skills, which sounds like a perfunctory attitude toward the purposes of contemporary education.

At the heart of the issue lies an outdated model. Many classrooms still operate on a factory-style approach, emphasizing standardized testing, rote memorization, and uniform learning paths. This system was designed for the industrial age, where conformity and the ability to follow instructions were paramount.

Today, however, the economy and society demand a different set of skills: creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and adaptability. Our rigid curricula, packed with siloed subjects, leave little room for students to develop these essential competencies. We teach them what to think, but rarely how to think.

Looking at the world as it is evolving today, one gets the feeling that unless our attitude towards enlightenment is radically changed, the effect of education will never be relevant or practically applicable. Everything is changing around us, and changing at an extremely high speed, but our understanding of education and its consequences is not moving anywhere.

It takes exactly as much time as it used to take a hundred years ago; we are teaching the subjects we used to teach long ago—except for a couple of new ones—the methodology of teaching is overwhelmingly the same, teacherstudent-parent relations are not going anywhere, and the knowledge evaluation criteria remain as old as the world itself.

There are attempts made to guess what professions might be more popular in the future, and those are helpful predictions, but not nearly enough to answer the most bothersome question of almost every parent in Sakartvelo: What is in store for my child in the future?

The main concern of the parents is how to prepare their children for grownup life in the epoch of the immense technological boom and digital catastrophe, followed by the overly, wildly speedy development of Artificial Intelligence. There is a ubiquitous apprehension about the fact that modern education is not compatible with the contemporary demands of real life.

Our schools and universities are tasked with preparing the next generation for the future. Yet, a critical look at our educational systems reveals a troubling disconnect. The methods, curricula, and goals that have defined education for the past century are struggling to keep pace with the swift currents of the 21st century. The world has changed, but education, for the most part, has not.

This growing gap means we are preparing students for a world that no longer exists. Contemporary demands require a fundamentally different approach. Consider the rise of artificial intelligence. AI is not just a tool; it is a transformative force that is reshaping every industry.

An effective education must equip students to work alongside AI, to understand its ethical implications, and to leverage its power for innovation. This requires a curriculum that integrates digital literacy, data analysis, and ethical reasoning across all subjects—not just in specialized computer science classes.

The task of reforming education is monumental, but the cost of inaction is far greater. Continuing with our current model is a disservice to our students and a risk to our collective future.

We must have the courage to dismantle outdated structures and build an educational system that is as dynamic, adaptable, and forward-thinking as the world it is meant to serve.

Photo: 1tv.

Georgia Launches Design Competition for Ganmukhuri and Anaklia Coastal Zone Renewal

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

T

he Ministry of Infrastructure’s Municipal Development Fund has announced a competition to design the large-scale renovation of the coastal zone in the villages of Ganmukhuri and Anaklia, Zugdidi Municipality.

Covering 66.5 hectares, the project’s goal is to transform the coastal area into a multifunctional recreational space, combining leisure, culture, sports and environmental sustainability.

The Ministry reveals that the renovated coastal zone will be divided into several areas, including: • Children’s playgrounds • Educational and cultural spaces • Sports fields and workout zones • Recreational areas with pedestrian and cycling paths Infrastructure upgrades will also intro-

Wood be Paradise

stopping there on their way to or from the falls. Business is booming. This July, at Mestia’s Svanetoba festival of all things local, Simon walked away with the top award for a meat dish, whose prize was

Photo by the author

BLOG BY TONY HANMER

T

he Shdugra Waterfall, past the top of Mazeri (Becho village’s topmost hamlet) has been there since time immemorial. To reach it, you hike on gently undulating forest paths, and through a Georgian border guards’ camp, where they’ll ask you how far you intend to go. To the bottom of the falls, no problem. Climbing up to their source glacier, however, requires presenting an ID document for recording. This is because you’ll come much closer to the Russian border, and no one wants any crossing incidents.

A new stop on the way to the falls, though, is the growing complex called Hikers Inn, the fulfilled vision of one Simon Argvleniani, who has also man-

aged nearby Grand Hotel Ushba for quite a few years. Following signposts all the way from the main road’s turn into Becho proper, crossing the river on a new bridge, you find the place right on the other side.

It’s almost entirely made of wood.

Simon had the idea for this facility about nine years ago. It’s on common land, and the village authorities allowed him to proceed, using his own funds.

Even the electricity for it now comes from 3km of wires he paid to have extended, a huge labor in itself. Year by year, the Inn complex has grown into its current form.

There are indoor and outdoor eating facilities; a wood-fired sauna, river-fed ice-cold pool, and two trout ponds fed from this. Rustic cabins; horse rentals; guides; shop; deck chairs; and more.

When my wife and I visited on an afternoon off, the place was filled with tourists from all over the world, most of them

a handsome colored felt picture of two Svan men dancing.

He showed us around as I filmed him talking to Lali for a Facebook advertisement about the whole project. He is very

duce a parking area designed in sync with the surrounding landscape.

The project will integrate both new facilities and the rehabilitation of existing structures. Some of the highlights include an open-air stage, a decorative lake and a pedestrian bridge connecting Ganmukhuri and Anaklia.

To ensure modern standards, the design will incorporate outdoor lighting, irrigation networks, electricity and water supply, sewage, drainage and safety systems.

A strong emphasis will be put on environmental responsibility. Landscaping with local plant species, biodiversity protection and waste separation will be part of the project. The use of renewable energy sources is also considered.

Once completed, the renewed Ganmukhuri–Anaklia coastal zone will offer a safe, comfortable and environmentally sustainable space. The Ministry emphasizes that the project will serve both local residents and tourists, providing opportunities for recreation, sports and social activities throughout the year.

good at branding, with the Inn’s logo all over the place. He produces many different varieties of his own flavored vodkas, and fish caught by rod or net minutes’ prior are prepared (along with the usual Svan specialties like kubdari meat pies) in a couple of ways.

We tried both the wonderful pan-fried trout and Simon’s own version. This is a whole gutted fish encased in bread dough and baked, just like kubdari is, but shaped like the fish. Ingenious and delicious. A swallow of local barberry vodka to wash it down, plus a bottle to take with us as a gift. Our meal was free too, as he recognizes the value of our promotion of his business.

It has taken years of growth, but Hikers Inn is by far the most popular place in all of Becho. Deservedly so. There is nothing like it elsewhere. Its location means that there is no nearby competition, and Simon has worked hard to make it what it is (with more planned). Even making the several km of road to it from the top end of Mazeri drivable was a major undertaking. But he has done what is necessary to attract business and make his clients at home, even hiring kitchen and restaurant staff all the way from Zugdidi. The surrounding mountains give a magnificent backdrop to this hewed-out masterpiece, with the waterfall visible several km away should you desire to trek to it. Onward, upward, Simon! *** Hikers Inn Simon Argvliani Tel. +995 599 424778 Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/ SvanetiRenaissance/ He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

8

SOCIETY

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

Georgia’s First Mental Health Festival: Sairme as a Therapeutic Space Continued from page 1 His presence at the festival exemplifies the global scope of the event, which brings together experts from both Georgia and Europe.

WHY SAIRME? THE PERFECT SETTING FOR MENTAL WELLNESS Choosing the right location for a mental health festival is no easy feat, but Sairme was an obvious choice. Known for its therapeutic waters, the town’s tranquil environment serves as an ideal backdrop for an event centered around emotional healing. Nestled in the picturesque hills of Georgia, Sairme is a place that seems to naturally invite relaxation. The fresh mountain air, the sound of nearby rivers, and the lush forests create a sense of peace that’s hard to replicate in the hustle and bustle of urban life.

Sairme’s natural beauty and peaceful surroundings encourage guests to disconnect from the stress of everyday living and immerse themselves in a calming environment. The serene atmosphere itself becomes part of the therapeutic experience, helping festival-goers to focus inward and engage in the mental and emotional self-care that the event promotes.

The connection between nature and mental well-being is well-documented in scientific research, which has shown that spending time in natural environments helps reduce stress and improve mood. Sairme, with its clean air and therapeutic mineral waters, amplifies these benefits. As a result, the location was chosen not only for its beauty but for its powerful potential to enhance the mental health experience of those who visit.

SAIRME RESORT A CONVENIENT AND HOLISTIC EXPERIENCE In addition to its natural advantages, Sairme Resort is well-equipped to host a large-scale event like the Mental Health Festival. The resort offers modern infrastructure that ensures the smooth running of the festival. All festival activities, accommodations, and meals are conveniently located in one space, which eliminates logistical concerns and allows participants to fully immerse themselves in the experience without distraction.

But Sairme is more than just a place to stay, it's an integral part of the festival’s therapeutic offering. With a wide range of outdoor activities and wellness ser-

vices, the resort offers a holistic experience designed to support both physical and emotional health. Visitors can participate in activities like ziplining, horseback riding, and cycling, all of which encourage movement and connection with nature. These activities provide an excellent balance to the more introspective, therapeutic sessions taking place throughout the festival.

Furthermore, Sairme’s Spa Center offers mineral water treatments that are wellknown for their detoxifying and rejuvenating properties. The combination of these physical therapies with the mental health-focused activities creates a comprehensive wellness experience that addresses the interconnectedness of mind and body.

THE HEALING POWER OF NATURE Spending time in nature has long been associated with improved mental health.

Research shows that being surrounded by greenery, clean air, and natural water sources has numerous psychological benefits. These include: • Stress Reduction: Time spent in nature helps lower cortisol, the hormone linked to stress, which can lead to an overall feeling of calm and relaxation.

• Mood Enhancement: Exposure to natural light and scenic environments has been shown to improve mood and increase serotonin levels, promoting a more positive outlook.

• Attention Restoration: Nature helps restore mental focus and concentration.

After spending time in a natural setting, people often feel more present and clearheaded.

• Fostering Social Bonds: Group activities in nature provide opportunities to connect with others, strengthening social ties and building a sense of community.

These benefits are part of the reason why Sairme was chosen as the festival's venue. The town's natural environment plays a critical role in enhancing the experience of the festival and allowing participants to reap the full mental health benefits of the event.

A DIVERSE PROGRAM FOR MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALING The Mental Health Festival’s program features a range of therapeutic sessions that focus on various aspects of mental well-being. These sessions are designed to help participants explore new ways to manage stress, release emotional

Frederico Marques - Holotropic Breathwork Facilitator

blockages, and reconnect with themselves. All sessions are facilitated by certified professionals with significant expertise in their respective fields.

Some of the main sessions include: • Holotropic Breathwork (facilitated

by Frederico Marquez): This powerful technique uses conscious, controlled breathing to help participants access deep emotional states, promoting healing and personal insight.

• Systemic Alignment: This therapeutic practice helps individuals examine and align their family dynamics and personal relationships, offering a new perspective on emotional well-being.

• Sound Therapy: By using sound frequencies and vibrations, this therapy helps participants release tension and achieve a relaxed state of mind.

• Movement Therapy: Focused on the connection between body and mind, movement therapy encourages participants to express their emotions physically, helping to release stored tension.

• Neurographics: An innovative form of art therapy, neurographics taps into the subconscious mind by using drawing and other visual exercises to promote self-reflection and emotional release.

• Yoga: A mindful practice that incorporates breath control, movement, and meditation, yoga promotes relaxation, flexibility, and mental clarity.

Each of these sessions is designed to provide tangible tools for personal growth and emotional healing. Whether through breathwork, creative expression, or physical movement, the festival offers a wide range of approaches for attendees to explore and integrate into their lives.

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO WELL-BEING The Mental Health Festival isn’t just about individual healing it’s about fostering a deeper sense of community and connection. While the focus of the event is on mental health, the festival also acknowledges the importance of physical well-being. By offering a combination of therapeutic activities and access to Sairme’s wellness facilities, the festival promotes a holistic approach to health.

Whether it’s through engaging in physical activities, enjoying the healing mineral waters of the resort, or participating in transformative therapies, the festival provides a well-rounded experience that caters to the needs of both the mind and body.

THE FUTURE OF MENTAL HEALTH IN GEORGIA The first-ever Mental Health Festival in Georgia marks a significant step forward in the country's ongoing conversation

about mental health. By creating a space where people can explore their mental health in a supportive, open environment, the festival is helping to break down the stigma that often surrounds mental health issues.

More than just a one-time event, the festival signals the beginning of a broader cultural shift toward prioritizing mental well-being in Georgia. As the conversation around mental health continues to grow, events like this one offer a glimpse of a future where emotional and psychological health are as important as physical health.

In Sairme, nature, wellness, and professional guidance come together to create a healing environment like no other. For those seeking to recharge, reflect, and reconnect with themselves, the Mental Health Festival in Sairme offers a rare and valuable opportunity to do so in one of the most peaceful and beautiful settings Georgia has to offer.

CULTURE

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

9

Gomi Mountain Fest: Above the Clouds, Beyond the Dancefloor

Photo by the author

ades of underground credibility.

THE PHENOMENON OF “ABOVE-NESS”

Photo by the author

BY IVAN NECHAEV

A

t 2,700 meters above sea level, on the mist-wreathed ridges of Gomis Mta in Guria, Georgia, the first edition of Gomi Mountain Fest took place this August. The organizers billed it as “two days above the clouds, in another reality,” and for once the marketing slogan was no exaggeration. Here, where even the standard tourist lookout feels dwarfed by the shifting sea of mist, Georgian electronic musicians gathered to create what could be called the country’s first attempt at ritualized raving in the sky.

The event’s program, running from the sunset grooves of Whino B2B Nikkol to the all-night trance of VFY (Vision From Yesterday), was less important than the fact of its location. A festival is always more than a schedule of DJs—it is an anthropology of space. To understand Gomi Mountain Fest is to place it within a global history of music and altitude: from the Incan ceremonies of Machu Picchu, where music and mountain were inseparable, to the notorious high-altitude psytrance gatherings in the Himalayas that became pilgrimage sites for European backpackers in the 1990s.

MOUNTAINS AS CULTURAL STAGES Mountains have long been stages for encounters with the sacred. In Mircea Eliade’s theory of the axis mundi, high peaks connect the earthly and the divine.

Georgians, too, have their ancestral memory of mountains as liminal spaces: sacred groves and highland sanctuaries dotted across Svaneti and Khevsureti served as sites of ritual feasts and collective gatherings. By transporting club culture into this terrain, Gomi Mountain Fest tapped into something older than rave—an echo of premodern cosmologies where altitude itself was an amplifier of experience.

Sociologist Victor Turner described ritual as “anti-structure”—moments when social hierarchies dissolve and participants enter into communitas, a sense of shared humanity. Raves have long been studied in precisely this Turnerian framework. What happens when the stage is not a warehouse in Berlin or a basement in Tbilisi, but a mountain crest where clouds swirl beneath dancers’ feet? The geography itself becomes part of the rite.

GEORGIAN ELECTRONIC UNDERGROUND ABOVE THE FOG The lineup reflected the diversity of

Georgia’s electronic underground.

Whino, with his acid-drenched deep house, opened a journey that blurred nostalgia and futurism. JSHKY, a DJ/VJ hybrid and founder of MOMTABARE, built dynamic collages that moved from electro to Italo disco, embodying the hybrid eclecticism of post-2020 Georgian club culture.

At dawn, Ottonian B2B Neon Warrior injected historical consciousness into the mountain air: their Detroit- and Birmingham-inspired techno recalled electronic music’s origins as a form of resistance against industrial decline and racialized oppression. That lineage matters. To hear such references on Gomis Mta is to understand electronic music as a transnational language: Detroit’s ghosts now haunt Georgian clouds.

Later, Generali Minerali, with his machine-funk abstractions, and Skyra, whose recent vinyl release Birth After Deathsituates him at the emotional edge of Georgian techno, demonstrated how local producers are claiming space on the international circuit. Hamatsuki, a resident of Bassiani’s queer Horoom nights, carried the mood into dusk, proving that mountain festivals can be as politically charged as club basements.

And when VFY, the trance alias of Erekle Tabukashvili, closed the festival, his experience anchored the night in dec-

There is a sociological fascination with verticality. Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk has written about how elevation alters perception, both literally and metaphorically. High places detach us from everyday structures, producing what anthropologist Tim Ingold might call a “dwelling perspective” in which the landscape itself reconfigures social relations. Dancing on Gomis Mta is not only an aesthetic choice but a phenomenological experiment: music becomes inseparable from altitude, from cold air and thin oxygen, from the shifting horizon of mist.

Festivals like Boom in Portugal or Ozora in Hungary have long cultivated rural escape as part of their identity. Yet Georgia’s Gomi Mountain Fest carries a different resonance. For a country whose electronic scene is internationally known for Bassiani’s subterranean spaces, a festival “above the clouds” symbolically rebalances the geography of Georgian club culture. It suggests that electronic music here is no longer confined to basements and urban margins; it has claimed the vertical axis, from underground to sky.

TOURISM, ECONOMY, AND MEMORY Anthropologists of tourism note how events can transform marginal regions into cultural destinations. Guria, often overlooked compared to Tbilisi or Adjara, now gains a symbolic claim in Georgia’s cultural map. The act of drawing hundreds of dancers up mountain trails turns geography into economy. In this sense, Gomi Mountain Fest follows a trajectory seen in Iceland’s Secret Solstice or Morocco’s Oasis Festival, where remote landscapes are recast as temporary capitals of global youth culture.

But there is also a risk. Festivals in fragile landscapes—from Burning Man in the Nevada desert to full-moon parties on Thai islands—often struggle with sustainability and overexposure. Gomi Mountain Fest, still intimate in its first edition, faces the paradox of success: how to grow without damaging the very atmosphere of “other reality” that altitude provides.

POTENTIAL AND POINTS OF GROWTH

Photo by the author

As a first edition, Gomi Mountain Fest demonstrated immense potential. Georgia has the chance to cultivate a festival that could rival Europe’s rural icons like Boom or Ozora, but with its own mountain identity. Yet there are also crucial points of growth: Accessibility and Inclusivity: Charging for entry and fencing off a mountaintop risks transforming a shared natural heritage into private territory. For locals,

whose ancestral relationship to Gomis Mta is cultural as much as scenic, this could breed alienation. A more sustainable model might avoid ticketing and instead monetize through services: transport, camping rentals, food, and curated experiences. This would keep the summit open while still funding the event.

Sustainability: Fragile highland ecosystems suffer under heavy footfall. Burning Man in Nevada and Boom Festival in Portugal have faced criticism for their environmental impact. Gomi Mountain Fest must preempt this by investing in waste management, eco-friendly infrastructure, and community integration.

Integration with Local Culture: Guria is famous for polyphonic singing traditions, feasting rituals, and pastoral life.

Future editions could experiment with dialogues between electronic music and local traditions—not as folklore tourism, but as genuine collaboration. Imagine a dawn set where a Gurian choir overlaps with ambient electronics, echoing across valleys.

Economic Model: The real revenue potential lies not in exclusivity, but in experience. Transfers from Tbilisi and Batumi, guided hikes, local gastronomy, art installations—these can form an economy without enclosing the landscape. This service-based approach mirrors Iceland’s Secret Solstice, which thrived on package experiences rather than ticketed exclusivity.

Curatorial Expansion Beyond the Pulse: The mountain begs for more than rhythmic intensity. While the nocturnal rave format is essential, the daytime atmosphere could host ambient, experimental sound art, and even contemporary academic music. Imagine an afternoon concert of drone and choral polyphony echoing through the valleys, or an installation blending field recordings of Gurian nature with electronic textures. This would attract new audiences—intellectual, artistic, international—without diluting the core rave identity.

THE LIMINAL FUTURE The inaugural Gomi Mountain Fest may be remembered less for logistical perfection than for symbolic resonance. It expanded the coordinates of Georgian rave from basements to sky, reactivating ancient mountain symbolism in electronic form. In a country where Bassiani has already been a symbol of resistance, the festival points toward a new horizon: rave as communion with landscape.

The challenge now is to refine without flattening—to scale while preserving intimacy, to earn without enclosing, to grow while staying porous to local communities. If organizers succeed, Gomi Mountain Fest could become a defining ritual of Georgian summers: a gathering where music, geography, and society fuse above the clouds. A new ritual had been born on the spine of Guria—fragile, euphoric, and full of potential.

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CULTURE

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

Introducing Mariam Dolidze – A Rising Star from the 1st BI Auction Competition for Young Artists INTERVIEW BY TEAM GT

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t is my pleasure to introduce Mariam Dolidze, one of the winners from our very first BI Auction Competition for Young Artists, - says Bengü Akçardak Küçük, Co-founder of BI Auction.

“She was a newlywed student when she joined our inaugural competition.

To our surprise and admiration, she returned the following year—this time pregnant—and by the third year, she was participating with her young son by her side.

“I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but Mariam has truly demonstrated how art and family can grow side by side. She never paused her career and continues to thrive as an artist.”

GEORGIA TODAY reached out to the artist to learn more.

YOU WON THE BI AUCTION COMPETITION IN 2020. WHAT POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS HAVE OCCURRED IN YOUR ARTISTIC JOURNEY SINCE THEN? HAVE ANY NEW OPPORTUNITIES ARISEN—EITHER IN GEORGIA OR INTERNATIONALLY? Winning the BI Auction Competition in

in which individual voices are not only being heard, but are helping shape the future of art.

2020 was a pivotal moment in my artistic career. It gave me significant visibility within Georgia’s contemporary art scene and opened new doors for creative opportunities.

Since then, I’ve participated in numerous exhibitions both locally and internationally, including online showcases curated by People and Paintings Gallery (USA), art.9hk Gallery (Hong Kong), and most recently, Aedra Fine Arts’ global exhibition “Pearl Space.”

In Georgia, I created a monumental mural for the “Science is Captain” project, organized by the United Nations at Batumi State University. I’ve also contributed to concept-driven exhibitions such as “Remembrance” and “Holocaust Remembrance,” exploring art’s role in collective memory and social reflection.

In 2023, I began my Master’s studies at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, which has deepened my theoretical foundation and helped refine my visual language.

DO YOU HAVE ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS OR EVENTS PLANNED FOR THE NEAR FUTURE? Yes! I’ve recently completed my Master’s degree in Fine Arts at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and am now focusing on several exciting projects.

One of them is “Ghani,” a multidisciplinary initiative led by the Tbilisi Architects Association. I’ll be contributing to this project through a visual art piece that explores themes of space, identity, and love as a form of self-inquiry.

Additionally, I’m preparing for a group exhibition that will feature both Georgian and international artists. I’m particularly excited about the collaborative nature of this project, as it aligns with my belief in art as a powerful bridge between personal stories and shared experiences.

HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE THE STATE OF THE ART WORLD AT THE MOMENT?

Artist Mariam Dolidze. Source: BI Auction

We are living in a complex yet creatively dynamic time for artists. The global art scene is more interconnected than ever, which gives artists from smaller countries like Georgia the opportunity to engage in international discourse through

digital platforms.

However, significant challenges remain—especially for emerging artists—including financial instability, limited institutional support, and sociopolitical pressures. Despite these hurdles,

I see a strong wave of resilience and innovation among contemporary artists.

Many are addressing profound social, environmental, and emotional themes, creating work that extends far beyond aesthetics. It’s an inspiring moment—one

Neon Faith in a Rusted City: Holy Electricity and the New Georgian Cinema

Photo by the author

BY IVAN NECHAEV

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here are films that deliver stories, and there are films that rewire perception. Tato Kotetishvili’s Holy Electricity belongs firmly to the latter category. The Georgian director’s debut feature, which premiered at Locarno in 2024 and promptly carried off the Golden Leopard for the “Cineasti del presente” competition, seems modest in its premise: two cousins in Tbilisi stumble upon a suitcase full of metal crosses, convert them into neon crucifixes, and try to sell them door-to-door.

Yet this bare plot proves inexhaustibly fertile. Out of scrap metal and LED tubing Kotetishvili fashions a meditation on faith, commerce, kinship, and the fragility of survival in a city perpetually oscillating between tradition and reinvention. The film is showing in theaters throughout August and is still available — with English subtitles.

At first glance the premise resembles a folk tale: a pair of underdogs encounter a magical object and seek to transform it into livelihood. But Kotetishvili does not work in parable’s simple moral hues. His camera lingers instead on the

city’s textures—crumbling courtyards, rusting gates, and stairwells where light flickers with the uncertainty of the national grid. The cousins’ neon crosses, glowing like miniature storefront signs, enter these spaces less as commodities than as experiments. Each doorway becomes a laboratory for testing how much belief, nostalgia, or irony still attaches to the sign of the cross when it is wired to an outlet and hums faintly like a cheap refrigerator.

This oscillation between sacred symbol and consumer trinket echoes Émile Durkheim’s foundational claim that society itself is the object of worship in religion: the cross, once detached from liturgy, reveals the community’s own shifting allegiances. In a post-Soviet, neoliberalizing Tbilisi, faith can be a private anchor, a public badge, and—here—a last-resort business venture.

Kotetishvili cast non-professional actors and relied heavily on improvisation. The result is a porous realism in which documentary textures bleed into fiction.

The cousins are not ciphers but vivid presences—awkward, endearing, fragile.

Their improvisations mirror the improvisations of the city itself: how does one earn dignity when the structures of labor and belonging collapse into informal economies? One cousin identifies as

gender-nonconforming, which inflects the sales encounters with additional social voltage. Each doorstep, each hesitation before a closed door, is a test of Georgia’s capacity for hospitality, tolerance, and recognition.

Anthropologists of religion often stress how rituals are reinvented under pressure. Here we watch a ritual economy at work: the cross, stripped from liturgical context, enters a domestic transaction. A buyer weighs its glow like one might a lamp; the cousins’ patter acquires the rhythm of street preachers crossed with salesmen. Max Weber’s story of “disenchantment” seems, for a moment, to short-circuit. In an age supposedly drained of magic, neon tubing becomes a vehicle of re-enchantment, smuggling mystery back into apartments where the light switch itself is an uncertain promise.

More than a backdrop, Tbilisi is the third protagonist of Holy Electricity.

Kotetishvili’s patient, frontal framings present the city as a series of thresholds—doorways, alleys, balconies— through which flows an endless negotiation between interior and exterior, household and street. Henri Lefebvre once argued that urban space is “produced” rather than given, a palimpsest of planning, practice, and imagination.

Kotetishvili visualizes precisely this production line. Each sale maps another fragment of the metropolis; each refusal charts a new contour of exclusion. What emerges is a cartography of contemporary Tbilisi in its minor keys: intimate, improvised, stubbornly alive.

Critics have compared the film to Paper Moon for its ragged entrepreneurial duo, but the kinship is partial. If Bogdanovich’s film was sentimental Americana, Kotetishvili’s belongs to a deadpan European lineage that stretches from Aki Kaurismäki to early Jim Jarmusch. Static compositions, abrupt cuts, and an undercurrent of mordant humor place it closer to a city symphony in fragments than to a road movie. The cousins go nowhere; instead, the city comes to them, door by door, silence by silence.

The film also seems to restage Walter Benjamin’s famous thesis on aura. In Benjamin’s view, mechanical reproduction diminishes the aura of singular artworks. The neon crosses, mass-produced from scrap, appear to prove his point— each is a disposable icon, stripped of consecration. Yet Kotetishvili insists on filming the encounters rather than the

objects. Aura migrates from the cross to the relation: the awkward smile exchanged in a dim hallway, the fragile dignity of a pitch refused without cruelty, the flicker of recognition between seller and buyer.

If Benjamin sought aura in the artwork, Kotetishvili finds it in the interstices of encounter, in gestures that carry more holiness than the hardware itself.

The cross in Georgia is overdetermined.

It graces the national flag, crowns hills, decorates apartment interiors. Yet its ubiquity risks a flattening of meaning.

Holy Electricity revives the symbol through kitsch and improvisation. A neon cross does not parody belief; it resituates it. It becomes a vernacular technology, a plug-and-play sacrament for households where faith competes with utility bills. The irony is gentle, not corrosive. Kotetishvili’s cousins are not iconoclasts. They are scavengers of meaning, conducting current between faith and subsistence.

What makes the film luminous is its refusal to moralize. There are no villains, no pieties, no grand sermons.

Instead we witness tenderness in unlikely places: in the cousins’ fumbling care for one another, in the buyers’ tentative curiosity, in the city’s willingness to accommodate absurdity. Comedy hovers always on the edge. The neon crosses

glow with a faintly ridiculous charm, yet their ridiculousness shades into poignancy. Faith, after all, has often thrived on absurdity. To believe in the light of a flickering diode is not so distant from believing in a mystery no eye can see.

In recent years, Georgian cinema has emerged as one of the most incisive in Europe: elliptical, socially astute, and formally daring. Holy Electricity extends that reputation. It is not a film of grand pronouncements but of small shocks, little surges of recognition. It reminds us that culture is never static, that symbols are never fixed, that survival itself can be a form of art.

More broadly, it speaks to a global condition. Across the world, from Rio’s hillside chapels to Manila’s neon-bedecked jeepneys, sacred forms blend with commercial light. Kotetishvili’s film gives this bricolage a face, a rhythm, a fragile grace. In doing so, it electrifies a question that cuts across borders: what does belief look like when survival itself has become an improvisation?

The answer, in Holy Electricity, is a glow both comic and tragic, ephemeral yet enduring. A faith plugged into the wall socket, humming with the possibility that holiness can still be salvaged from the scrapyard.

A still from Tato Kotetishvili’s Holy Electricity. Source: cphdox

CULTURE

GEORGIA TODAY

AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

11

Nina Tsagareli on Leading Night Serenades Into Its 17th Season masters of Baroque music. Both Gabetta and Steger are among the leading interpreters of Baroque repertoire today and regularly collaborate with such legends as Cecilia Bartoli, Franco Fagioli, and others. Their recordings have received numerous international awards. It is a great honor to host them at our festival—especially as they have generously agreed to give masterclasses for young Georgian musicians, despite their busy schedules.

“The Soul of Tango” will celebrate everything that defines the spirit of this deeply emotional dance. Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi, together with Tamar Licheli and the string quintet Georgian Virtuosi, will perform works by Piazzolla, Di Marino, Palmer, Villoldo, and others.

Some of these pieces are well-known and beloved by Georgian audiences, while others will be performed in Georgia for the very first time.

We’re also looking forward to an exceptional concert in Tbilisi, where the brilliant Italian conductor Beatrice Venezi will join forces with the outstanding Georgian violinist Veriko Tchumburidze.

They will present iconic repertoire from romanticism era, including Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto in a special chamber orchestra arrangement by Ilan Rechtman, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.

Our base orchestra, Georgian Virtuosi, will perform at every concert. This is a remarkable ensemble, assembled each year especially for Night Serenades, and composed of some of Georgia’s most accomplished musicians. It is led by the wonderful violinist Lela Mtchedlidze.

As mentioned earlier, the final evening of the festival will feature Astor, a project by Balletto di Roma. It is both a great honor and a significant responsibility for us to host one of Italy’s leading dance companies, who will give a one-time, exclusive performance as part of the festival”.

I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Embassy of Italy in Georgia for its longstanding support and unwavering partnership, as well as for making it possible to bring this remarkable project to life in Georgia.

BY TEAM GT

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ina Tsagareli has been successfully leading the Liana Isakadze International Festival “Night Serenades” for seven years, continuing the legacy of one of Georgia’s most cherished cultural events.

As the longest-running festival in the country, “Night Serenades” holds a special place in Georgia’s cultural life.

Founded by the legendary Georgian violinist and conductor Liana Isakadze, the festival has, for over three decades, welcomed world-class musicians from around the globe, enriching the local music scene and preserving a vital tradition of artistic excellence. GEORGIA TODAY sat down with her to find out more.

MS. NINA, YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY LEADING THE FESTIVAL FOR SEVEN YEARS. WHAT DOES THIS FESTIVAL MEAN TO YOU? The Liana Isakadze International Festival “Night Serenades” is the longestrunning festival in Georgia and holds a special place in the country’s cultural life. What makes it especially significant is that it was founded by the legendary Georgian violinist and conductor Liana Isakadze, who led the festival for more than three decades, during which she brought numerous world-class musicians to perform.

"Over the years, 'Night Serenades' has nurtured generations of listeners, maintained its relevance, and continues to be eagerly anticipated by audiences.

"For me personally, this festival is incredibly dear to my heart—it truly feels like one big musical family. Many of the participants have become devoted friends of Night Serenades, and this circle continues to grow every year.

Each season brings new names—young, successful musicians alongside internationally acclaimed performers—making the festival a vibrant platform for artistic exchange, creative collaboration, and, most importantly, the joy of making music together.

"That’s why leading Night Serenades is both a great honor and a profound responsibility. Above all, we are committed to preserving the festival’s finest traditions and artistic legacy, continuing the path begun by Liana Isakadze—with the respect and excellence it so richly deserves. At the same time, we strive to embrace innovation and stay attuned to the ever-evolving trends in the world of classical music.

"I believe we’ve succeeded in striking this balance so far. Much of the credit belongs to our Artistic Director, Mr. Giorgi Issakadze, as well as to our valued supporters: the Ministry of Culture of Georgia, the Ministry of Culture of Adjara, the Tbilisi, Batumi, and Borjomi City Halls, and the LEPL “Creative Georgia.”

"The enthusiastic attendance at our concerts and the heartfelt feedback from our audiences stand as clear proof of this success. We sincerely hope to main-

Nina Tsagareli. Source: FB

tain—and build upon—this high standard in the years ahead.

THIS YEAR MARKS THE SEVENTEENTH EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL SINCE ITS REVIVAL. WHAT WILL MAKE IT SPECIAL? Every season of the festival is special and, in its own way, unique. The concert programs and performer lineups are never repeated from year to year, which gives each edition its distinctive character.

This year, we will present six concerts in Borjomi, Batumi, and Tbilisi. In addition to the performances, we’ve planned an especially rich program of masterclasses. These were requested both by the artists and by the audience, who greatly value the opportunity to engage with internationally renowned musicians.

We’ll also host workshops for students, young people, and individuals with disabilities, alongside exhibitions by Geor-

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gian artists. And of course, there will be many musical surprises for our audiences. That’s why we warmly invite everyone to join us on this exciting and diverse musical journey.

TELL US ABOUT THIS YEAR’S PERFORMERS AND CONCERT PROGRAMS. This year, we’ve placed particular emphasis on thematic concert programs, with each evening centered around a unifying artistic idea. For instance, in Batumi, we will present three musical evenings titled: “Morricone – A Cinema Legend”, “Vivaldi Fever” and “The Soul of Tango” As the festival’s grand finale, we will offer a “dance concert” titled “Astor”— a truly unique production created to mark the 100th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla’s birth. This concert will feature Piazzolla’s powerful music performed by the world-renowned bandoneonist Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi, alongside contemporary choreography by Balletto

di Roma, one of Italy’s leading dance companies.

The concert “Morricone – A Cinema Legend” will be presented by Nello Salza, often called “the Trumpet of Italian Cinema.” An exceptional musician, Salza has worked for decades with Italy’s most prominent film and television composers. Most notably, he had a long-standing friendship and artistic collaboration with the legendary Ennio Morricone.

His playing can be heard in the films such as The Hateful Eight, Life is Beautiful, Once Upon a Time in America, The Legend of 1900, Cinema Paradiso, Octopus, and many others. During this special evening, Salza will perform unforgettable soundtracks of Ennio Morricone and will also share personal stories and memories from his creative work with legendary Maestro.

The program “Vivaldi Fever” is a joint project by Andres Gabetta and Maurice Steger, two musicians hailed as true

WHERE AND WHEN WILL THE CONCERTS TAKE PLACE? It has become a cherished tradition for the festival to open in Borjomi, at the beautiful Borjomi-Likani Hotel. This year will be the third time we inaugurate Night Serenades with an open-air concert, featuring Maurice Steger and Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi performing alongside our base orchestra, Georgian Virtuosi.

The next three concerts will take place in Batumi, at the Ilia Chavchavadze Drama Theatre, on August 22, 24, and 26. Then, on October 9, we’ll return to Tbilisi for a concert at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire Grand Hall. Finally, the closing performance will be held on the stage of the Aleksander Griboyedov State Drama Theater.

We warmly invite everyone to join us—we promise evenings filled with inspiration, powerful emotions, and unforgettable musical experiences.

Journalists: Ana Dumbadze Vazha Tavberidze Tony Hanmer Nugzar B. Ruhadze Ivan Nechaev Mariam Razmadze

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