issue#1528

Issue no: 1528

• NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025 • PUBLISHED WEEKLY

PRICE: GEL 2.50

In this week’s issue...

Georgia Upholds TwoYear Prison Sentence for Journalist Mzia Amaglobeli NEWS PAGE 2

Draw Them In and Bleed Them Dry — Veteran Shaun Pinner on the Brutal Logic of Defending Pokrovsk POLITICS PAGE 5

Blue Sky Academy: Training Pilots to Global Standards in Georgia BUSINESS PAGE 6

FOCUS ON MERAB ABRAMISHVILI

ATINATI Private Collection

ATINATI Cultural Center presents exhibition featuring Merab Abramishvili’s personal collection

PAGE 10

HIT Hub: The Georgian Platform Reengineering Hospitality and Winemaking from the Inside Out BUSINESS PAGE 7

Georgia’s Plastics Ban Meets Circular Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges

Georgian Dream Plans to End Overseas Voting, Sparking Criticism from Democracy Advocates SOCIETY PAGE 8

Smoke on the Water in the Caucasian Night: How Deep Purple Turned the Tbilisi Sports Palace into a Temporary Museum of Collective Memory

BY TEAM GT

G

eorgian Dream is pushing ahead with a major overhaul of Georgia’s Election Code. At a briefing this week, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili announced that one of the most radical proposals would mean Georgian citizens living abroad could no longer vote from foreign polling stations — they’d be required to return to Georgia to cast their ballots. He framed the change as a necessary step to protect elections from external interference, arguing that citizens abroad may be exposed to political pressure, manipulated information, or foreign influence in a way that those living in Georgia are not.

Papuashvili emphasizes that this isn’t about stripping away rights — rather, it’s about restructuring how votes are cast. He insists that every Georgian abroad still retains full voting rights, but under the new draft, they’ll have to come home at least once every four years to exercise them.

Continued on page 4

CULTURE PAGE 11 Prepared for Georgia Today Business by

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A queue of voters waiting to vote in the 2024 parliamentary elections outside the Georgian Embassy in London. Photo by Tamar Zakalashvili

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2

NEWS

GEORGIA TODAY

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

Georgia’s Labor Market: Unemployment Down But Workforce Participation Also Falls

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

Rustaveli Avenue. Source: Georgia Travel

Tbilisi City Hall Presents 2026 Budget for Rustaveli Avenue Rehabilitation

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

T

bilisi City Hall has presented the 2026 budget project to the City Assembly, allocating 40 million GEL for the rehabilitation of Rustaveli Avenue, with 10 million GEL planned for 2026 and the remaining 30 million GEL for 2027.

The project aims to repair the deformed road surface, replace damaged asphalt and concrete pavements and install a new drainage system to handle rainwater. A bike lane will be added along the right side of the avenue. Existing underground passages will receive waterproof-

ing, and damaged metal railings and fire hydrants will be upgraded or replaced.

Additionally, the project includes new irrigation systems and infrastructure for local utilities.

The rehabilitation covers a 1,442-meter section. City officials emphasized the need for careful planning to minimize disruption for residents during construction. Tbilisi City Assembly Chairman Giorgi Tkhemaladze noted that the work is expected to take approximately four months once construction begins.

The Rustaveli Avenue rehabilitation was initially planned for 2025, with four contracts totaling 28 million GEL, but the project was postponed in March.

Design work will continue and tenders are set to restart in 2026.

Queuing for jobs. Image source: Liberty Street Economics

T

he National Statistics Office (Geostat) reports that Georgia’s unemployment rate declined in the third quarter of 2025, even as fewer people participated in the labor force.

The unemployment rate dropped by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year, reaching 13.3%.

Despite the improvement in unemployment, overall labor force participation also slipped. In Q3 2025, the share of the labor force within the population aged 15 and older stood at 54.5%, a 0.1 percentage point decrease compared to the same period last year.

Participation trends diverged between urban and rural areas. In Urban settlements participation fell by 0.2 percentage points, while in rural settlements it rose by 0.1 percentage points.

In the third quarter: • Employees: 3 thousand people (up 0.1%) • Self-employed: 4 thousand (down 3.3%) • Unemployed: 7 thousand (down 5.4%)

Overall employment increased slightly.

The employment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points, reaching 47%.

Unemployment dynamics varied sharply depending on location. In Urban areas, unemployment increased by 1.1 percentage points, while in rural areas it decreased by 3 percentage points.

GENDER GAPS REMAIN Geostat’s data shows that long-standing

gender differences remain largely unchanged, with women making up 44% of labor force and men 67%. However, employment rates changed with women falling by 0.7 percentage points, while men rose by 1.2 percentage points.

As in previous periods, unemployment continues to be higher among men than women, and men also participate in the labor force at significantly higher rates.

Georgia Upholds TwoYear Prison Sentence for Journalist Mzia Amaglobeli

The Georgian stand at IBTM World 2025 in Barcelona. Source: 1TV

Georgia Promoted as a MICE Destination at IBTM World 2025

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

G

eorgia showcased its business-tourism potential at IBTM World 2025 in Barcelona, one of the world’s largest MICE exhibitions. The delegation, led by Maia Omiadze, Head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA), met with international marketing agencies, airlines and event managers to attract large-scale conferences and business events to Georgia.

Discussions focused on promoting Georgia as a MICE destination, planning

presentations and road shows, and hosting events for groups of 300–500 people.

The exhibition also included participation from the Adjara Tourism and Resorts Department and nine GNTA member companies.

Industry experts noted growing global interest in Georgia. Vishesh Manhani, founder of Vive Bespoke Event, said the country has strong potential to become a regional hub for business tourism, citing its scenic destinations, gastronomy and simplified visa procedures.

IBTM World 2025 hosts over 2,500 organizations from 150 countries, with more than 12,000 visitors attending the event.

Mzia in court. Source: FB

BY TEAM GT

M

zia Amaglobeli, founder of the independent news outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, will serve a two-year prison sentence after the Kutaisi Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling. At the hearing, Amaglobeli addressed the court directly, saying she is not afraid of imprisonment itself but of “what awaits outside — a country fighting for freedom or a country conquered without tanks.”

Her conviction stems from an incident during pro-European protests in Batumi earlier this year. On January 11, 2025, Amaglobeli was first detained after placing a sticker calling for a nationwide

strike on a police building. She was briefly released but returned to the protest, where a confrontation with the local police chief allegedly escalated, leading to charges under Article 353, Part 1 of Georgia’s Criminal Code for resistance or threats against a government official.

The offense carries penalties ranging from fines or house arrest to six years in prison.

Amaglobeli, who has long been a vocal critic of the government, emphasized during her hearing that dignity and democracy must stand above legal maneuvering. “I have nothing to add to the legal argument. I only want to express my gratitude to my defenders. I believe this fight will serve as an example for many, especially those struggling for democracy,” she said. She also warned that Georgia’s repressive laws allow

authorities to repeatedly detain individuals: “Even if the court sends me home, they could bring me back. You can even be arrested for wearing a mask.

The regime will come up with anything it needs. We must fight until the end.”

Her arrest and sentencing sparked widespread protests and solidarity from the media community. On January 14, dozens of media outlets across Georgia staged a three-hour strike, calling for her release. International rights groups, including Amnesty International, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, condemned her detention as politically motivated, citing reports of verbal abuse and mistreatment while in custody.

The European Union has also criticized the case as part of a broader crackdown on dissent in Georgia.

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

3

EBRD Plans €300 mln Support for Georgia’s Private Sector Focusing on Middle Corridor

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

PACE Co-rapporteurs Urge Georgian Authorities to “Stop Politically Motivated Legal Actions against the Opposition”

A

lkis Vrienios Drakinos, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Head for the Caucasus, announced that EBRD expects to invest more than €300 million in Georgia’s private sector this year. He emphasized that the institution remains committed to Georgia despite the country’s paused EU integration process.

Drakinos said the EBRD continues to prioritize support for local banks, SMEs and various sectors of the economy. “We are strongly committed to continuing our support for Georgia’s private sector and the country’s development. For example, this year we plan to invest more than €300 million across various sectors in Georgia, including banks and small and medium-sized enterprises. So we are quite active.

At this stage, we are focusing on developing and monitoring existing projects.

We have priorities, and we are assessing where and what we should undertake.

We will continue researching and developing projects of regional significance,” he said.

Speaking at the Black Sea Platform’s annual conference in Tbilisi, Drakinos emphasized that the strategic importance of the Middle Corridor, calling it a crucial concept for connecting Europe and Asia. He stressed that Georgia sits at the center of this transit route and that the bank is ‘deeply interested’ in participat-

BY TEAM GT

P

Photo: LinkedIn of Alkis Drakinos.

ing in all discussions and feasibility stages related to making the corridor a viable transportation link.

The EBRD is already investing in Georgia’s road and railway projects, as well as in infrastructure across other Middle Corridor countries from Central Asia through the Caucasus.

The conference, organized by the EU– Georgia Business Council (EUGBC) with support from GIZ, brings together around

150 representatives of diplomatic missions, business associations, private sector actors and civil society from Georgia, the EU, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Central Asia. Participants are examining challenges and opportunities for more efficient operation of the transit route, with a focus on infrastructure upgrades and reforms that could ease EU trade through the Black Sea and strengthen regional connectivity.

ACE co-rapporteurs for Georgia, Edite Estrela and Sabina Cudic, are calling on the Georgian authorities to halt what they describe as politically motivated legal actions targeting opposition leaders. Their statement was published on the official website of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Following their visit to Georgia on 10–12 November, the co-rapporteurs urged the government to fully implement the Venice Commission’s recommendations concerning the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence (“foreign agents” law), the Law on Grants, and the Law on Administrative Offences.

“We reiterate the Assembly’s position: these laws are incompatible with European standards. As the Venice Commission concluded, they should be repealed,”

Estrela and Cudic said.

They expressed “deep concern” over recent criminal charges against leaders of democratic opposition parties, warning that those accused under “fabricated allegations” may face long-term imprisonment. The co-rapporteurs linked these cases to recent appeals seeking to ban several major opposition parties.

“These actions have no place in a democratic society. We urge the authorities to end them immediately, as they risk effectively establishing a dictatorship in Georgia,” the statement reads.

During their visit, Estrela and Cudic met with the Speaker of Parliament, members of the Georgian Dream faction, and representatives of parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition parties. While they welcomed the opportunity to meet imprisoned political leaders, they noted with regret that government officials refused to meet with them and that they were denied permission to visit Mzia Amaglobeli in prison.

4

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

Ukraine Latest: Pokrovsk Under Pressure as Russia Uses Record Drone Barrages against Ukraine’s Cities and Power Grid

Smoke rises from an apartment building hit by a morning Russian missile strike in Ternopil, Ukraine. Source: REUTERS/Andriy Bodak

COMPILED BY ANA DUMBADZE

A

s the war edges toward a fourth winter, this week in Ukraine was dominated by two interconnected battles: Russia’s grinding push around the strategic eastern hub of Pokrovsk, and an escalation in long-range strikes designed to break Ukraine’s power grid and sap civilian resilience. Ukraine, in turn, continued to hit back deep inside Russia with drone attacks on oil infrastructure, while Western capitals announced new military support and explored controversial diplomatic initiatives that could reshape the terms of any eventual peace.

On the eastern front, Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast remained the focal point of Russia’s offensive. Russian forces continued efforts to squeeze Ukrainian units in and around the Pokrovsk–Myrnohrad pocket, deploying additional elements of at least two combined-arms units, in what analysts describe as an attempt to complete an encirclement.

Ukrainian commanders acknowledge that the situation is difficult, with Russian troops consolidating positions inside parts of Pokrovsk, and putting sustained pressure on the remaining supply corridors. Independent assessments suggest that although Moscow has degraded Pokrovsk’s role as a logistics hub since the summer, Ukrainian forces are still

holding key defensive lines and have not yet been forced into a disorderly retreat.

Fierce urban combat continues, and both sides report heavy casualties without decisive territorial shifts over the past week.

Further north and west along the eastern front, Russia kept up attacks near Kupiansk and in sectors linked to the broader Pokrovsk offensive, seeking to stretch Ukrainian reserves and complicate Kyiv’s efforts to stabilize the line.

Ukrainian officials say they are rotating additional special forces and mechanized units into the area to plug gaps, and have reported limited counter-attacks near some villages at the base of the Dobropillia salient to blunt Russian advances.

The overall picture is one of incremental Russian gains in ruined towns and industrial zones, but no breakthrough that would radically alter the map in the short term.

While the front lines moved slowly, the air war intensified dramatically. On the night of 18–19 November, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as one of the largest combined drone-and-missile barrages in months, firing 476 strike and decoy drones and 48 missiles of various types at targets across the country.

Many of the missiles were intercepted, including by newly deployed Westernsupplied F-16 and Mirage-2000 jets, but enough got through to cause devastating damage. A Kh-101 cruise missile slammed

Georgian Dream Plans to End Overseas Voting, Sparking Criticism from Democracy Advocates Continued from page 1 He even cites constitutional grounding, pointing to Article 24 as justifying the state’s duty to safeguard the integrity of elections. To bolster his case, he points to other countries — like Ireland, Malta, Israel, and Armenia — that, in his view, have similar models.

But not everyone is convinced. ISFED, a leading Georgian election-monitoring NGO, has strongly condemned the plan, calling it a “step against inclusive democracy.” In their view, requiring diaspora Georgians to vote only on home soil undermines the principle of universal suffrage and appears politically motivated — especially since ISFED notes that Georgian Dream won only about 13% of the votes cast abroad in the 2024 elections, compared to roughly 54% nationwide.

Beyond the numbers, critics are alarmed by the process. They say such a sweeping change is being pushed through without meaningful consultation with civil society, diaspora communities, or

electoral experts — a pattern, they argue, that has become more common under recent reforms.

Legal scholars are also sounding the alarm. One constitutionalist wrote that this move is “equivalent to depriving emigrants of their citizenship,” warning that it deepens the divide between Georgia and its diaspora. Nino Dolidze, a former head of ISFED, described the change as “an extremely backward step” that effectively excludes Georgians abroad from fully participating in their homeland’s political life.

There’s also a larger context to consider. Critics point out that these proposed changes come alongside growing concerns about democratic backsliding in Georgia. Since the 2024 parliamentary elections, which were already contentious, there have been growing frustrations about how reforms are being made — especially when they appear to favor the ruling party. The debate is now not just legal, but deeply political, touching on identity, democracy, and who gets to shape the future of Georgia.

into a residential high-rise in the western city of Ternopil, killing at least 25 people, including children, and injuring well over 100.

Emergency services warned that dozens more remained missing under the rubble as rescuers worked through the debris in freezing temperatures.

The same overnight wave hit multiple regions, including Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Khmelnytskyi, striking power plants, substations, industrial sites and public transport infrastructure. Ukraine’s energy ministry reported emergency blackouts in several oblasts as grid operators struggled to stabilize the system, and officials noted that similar night-time attacks on energy infrastructure have been occurring almost every day for weeks.

Earlier in the week, another mass strike on Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv left gaping holes in apartment blocks, killed and injured civilians, and again forced authorities to ration electricity.

UN human rights monitors say civilian casualty figures for 2025 are already significantly higher than last year, driven in part by the renewed focus on critical infrastructure.

Russia’s campaign also extended to Ukraine’s ports and maritime energy imports. In the Odesa region, a Turkishflagged tanker, the MT Orinda, was hit by a drone and set ablaze while unloading liquefied petroleum gas at Izmail, a key Danube port. All 16 crew members were evacuated, but the incident trig-

gered emergency measures on both the Ukrainian and Romanian sides of the river and highlighted the risks to new routes for U.S. and other Western fuel supplies into Ukraine. The same wave of attacks killed at least five civilians and injured 13 others in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, Ukrainian officials said.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continued frequent drone and missile launches at other energy facilities and railway nodes, aiming to disrupt both civilian life and the military logistics that depend heavily on Ukraine’s rail network.

Ukraine has not remained passive under this onslaught. Over the past week, Kyiv intensified deep-strike drone operations against Russian oil and energy infrastructure. In the Ryazan region, about 200 kilometers from Moscow, Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery, causing a large fire that Russian officials blamed on debris from intercepted UAVs. Near the Black Sea, Ukrainian naval and aerial drones again targeted facilities linked to Russia’s vital oil export routes. A strike near the port of Novorossiysk damaged an oil depot and reportedly forced a temporary halt in some oil shipments, according to industry sources.

Ukraine also claimed to have hit an electricity substation in Russia’s Ulyanovsk region. These attacks, Kyiv argues, are meant to degrade Russia’s capacity to fund and conduct its air campaign against Ukrainian cities. Moscow, in turn, is tightening its domestic defenses against such strikes. This week, Russia adopted sweeping new legislation allowing reservists to guard fuel and energy facilities, authorizing temporary internet blackouts in areas under attack and increasing penalties for sabotage.

The laws reflect the Kremlin’s expectation of a long war in which Ukrainian drones and covert operations continue to pose a significant threat far from the front line. Russian officials also claimed to have intercepted or destroyed hundreds of Ukrainian drones in recent days, including more than 200 in a single night, though these figures cannot be independently verified.

The human toll of this week’s escalation goes far beyond the headline figures from Ternopil. In addition to the dozens killed and more than 100 injured in that single strike, Ukrainian authorities report that Russian attacks in southern regions earlier in the week killed at least four civilians and wounded several others, while the strikes on Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk linked to the Izmail incident

added another five dead and 13 injured.

The UN now estimates that more than 12,000 civilians have been killed since the full-scale invasion began, a number that is likely an undercount given the difficulties of gathering information from occupied territories.

Ukrainian officials warn that sustained attacks on heating and electricity networks as winter sets in could generate a secondary wave of casualties among vulnerable populations.

Amid the violence, diplomatic maneuvering has accelerated, albeit in deeply contentious ways. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Turkey this week to discuss a new push for peace talks, vowing to use the latest mass strikes as evidence in appeals for greater airdefense support at the UN Security Council.

At the same time, Western media reported that US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a 28-point proposal that would require Ukraine to cede occupied territories and accept strict limits on its armed forces in exchange for a ceasefire — terms that Ukrainian officials and many analysts immediately described as a blueprint for capitulation and future renewed aggression.

Moscow has shown no sign of softening its core demands that Kyiv renounce NATO membership and withdraw from four regions Russia claims to have annexed, while Ukraine insists it will not accept the loss of its sovereign territory.

On the military-aid front, however, Kyiv did secure fresh promises. During a visit to Paris, Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a letter of intent for the future purchase of up to 100 Rafale fighter jets over the next decade, alongside shorter-term deliveries of drones, guided missiles, radars and air-defense systems.

Paris also highlighted plans for joint production of interceptor drones and potential future co-production of Rafale components in Ukraine, positioning the deal as part of a broader effort to build up Ukraine’s domestic defense industry.

In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a new €615 million military aid package that includes funding for additional defensive equipment under EU security-cooperation mechanisms.

Zelensky has hinted that more European support packages and an “important agreement for military capabilities” are expected before the end of November, although the precise content and timing remain to be seen.

EU–Georgia Human Rights Dialogue Postponed as Tensions Rise

BY TEAM GT

T

his week, tensions flared between Tbilisi and Brussels after the European Union postponed the EU– Georgia Human Rights Dialogue, originally scheduled for 21 November in Brussels. The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said the postponement came “just days before the meeting” and blamed the EU for doing so “on completely unacceptable and unjustifiable grounds.”

From Tbilisi’s point of view, the dialogue was more than a routine exercise: after the EU Council’s 27 June 2024 conclusions, which effectively suspended political dialogue with Georgia at all levels, this meeting looked like one of the few remaining bridges. The Georgian side says it had done its homework — carrying out “significant preparatory work,” assembling a delegation from all relevant agencies, and preparing detailed information on every agenda point.

But when Brussels pulled the plug, Georgia’s MFA voiced deep frustration:

Human rights. Source: escp

it accused the European External Action Service (EEAS) of lacking genuine will to listen, and of speculating about reasons for postponement instead of engaging with Georgia’s “fact-based positions.” The Georgian Deputy Interior Minister, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, added that his team stood ready to answer any EU question “at any time,” but he lamented that they were given no official explanation, just told “they were prepared to postpone.”

On the EU side, the picture painted by Brussels was quite different. European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper confirmed the meeting was delayed, citing “impediments from the Georgian side” as the reason. According to reports,

one major stumbling block was Georgia’s insistence on including a sanctioned official in its delegation — something that the EU apparently found unacceptable. Nonetheless, Hipper emphasized that the EU remains “ready to hold the meeting … to present the EU’s position on human rights.”

Underlying this clash is a deeper diplomatic freeze: Tbilisi argues that until Brussels fully restores the suspended political dialogue, it feels the EU isn’t serious about hearing Georgia out. The Georgian MFA reaffirmed that, despite the setback, Georgia is still committed to engagement — but only once the channels it sees as essential are reopened.

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

5

Draw Them In and Bleed Them Dry — Veteran Shaun Pinner on the Brutal Logic of Defending Pokrovsk INTERVIEW BY VAZHA TAVBERIDZE

I

f you’re drawing the enemy in, killing far more of them than they kill of you, and fighting on ground you’ve chosen, then you stay and fight as long as you can, — says Shaun Pinner, a former British soldier and veteran of Ukraine’s armed forces who survived the Mariupol siege and months of Russian captivity.

Pinner, who has fought for Ukraine since 2018 and has seen the war’s realities more closely than most foreign volunteers, speaks to RFE/RL’s Georgian Service about the battle for Pokrovsk, why its defense resembles “a modernday Hougoumont,” how long Ukrainian forces can hold without being encircled, and the political and psychological clout Moscow desperately needs from capturing the city.

He also discusses Ukraine’s manpower crisis, the consequences of delaying mobilization reforms, and why he believes Russia’s push past Pokrovsk — even if successful — would come at catastrophic cost.

THE KREMLIN DEADLINE TO CAPTURE POKROVSK WAS PUSHED FROM NOVEMBER 15 TO DECEMBER 15. HOW IMMINENT DOES IT LOOK THAT POKROVSK WILL INDEED FALL? I can't tell you for certain that we'll hold it. There are allegedly about 115,000 Russians there, and we’re outnumbered eight to one. What I do know is that Ukraine’s strategic plan hasn’t changed since the first days of the invasion. I lived through being in a pocket in Mariupol: you exhaust the enemy’s ability to push. Yes, you know you’re encircled, but you keep going because the goal is to drain the enemy’s resources so Kyiv can survive.

Mariupol is the prime example—many say that if we hadn’t held it as long as we did, Kyiv might have fallen. As a sol-

dier, you understand it’s not about clear wins or losses; sometimes you draw the enemy in. That’s why I compare it to Waterloo—Hougoumont held up an imperial force, and Pokrovsk is the same kind of bastion. Hopefully, with a better outcome. If Putin does take it, the defensive layers north of Pokrovsk are substantial—dragon’s teeth, trenches, tank ditches, razor wire. They’d have to go through all of that again.

JUST HOW LONG CAN THE UKRAINIAN FORCES HOLD OUT WITHOUT THE RISK OF BEING ENCIRCLED? What I’m going to say sounds uncomfortable, but if you’re drawing the enemy in, fighting on ground you’ve dictated, and they’re losing far more men than you are, then you should hold Pokrovsk as long as possible. When I was there last November, Russians were eight kilometers out. In a year, they’ve only pushed eight kilometers—at enormous cost.

SUPPOSE THEY CAPTURE POKROVSK. WHERE DO THEY GO NEXT? It’s a crossroads. They’ll reinforce, restore rail links—some strategic value, but nothing that fundamentally changes the war. Russian infantry is terrible. They’re good at reconnaissance, small assault groups, and bombing, but their infantry is very poor. Even if they take Pokrovsk, they’ll be exhausted and depleted, with winter locking them in place.

Logically, they’d try to push toward Kramatorsk and Izyum. But moving north of Pokrovsk will cost them heavily—Ukraine benefits from that; that’s where the traps are. The point is to deplete Russian forces so they can’t move on.

As for encirclement, Putin claimed more than two weeks ago that they had Pokrovsk trapped, even inviting journalists. Twenty days later, it’s clearly not encircled. They’re stalling and waiting

Shaun Pinner

for reinforcements because of heavy casualties.

As a commander, it’s like sealing off a flooding compartment in a submarine— you make a brutal decision to save the rest. If Ukraine has reinforcements and the pocket remains open, and if they’re killing enough Russians, then you hold as long as you can.

territory. Ukrainian innovation, Flamingo missiles, for example, is having real effect.

There’s still fight and will. People are tired, and corruption scandals don’t help, but I remind people that’s part of a working democracy. My concern is troop numbers.

HOW BIG A MORALE SHIFT WOULD POKROVSK’S FALL CREATE—FOR RUSSIANS AND UKRAINIANS?

I never understood why the 18–25 group was allowed to leave in 2022. Many could have gone into officer school for four years and be trained professionals by now. I’m not saying put 18-year-olds on the front line; train them, find their specialties—infantry, drones, engineering.

There was no reason not to mobilize them early.

Now Ukraine is chasing its tail. They let that age group leave, and now they aren’t coming back. There are still plenty of fighting-age men in cities like Dnipro and Kyiv, but because mobilization wasn’t done earlier, any decision now will be

For Ukrainians, it would hurt morale— let’s not pretend otherwise. We don’t want to lose anything, and we’re inching back. At some point we must launch an offensive, which raises the question of manpower. Is that under control? Can we realistically do it?

But Russia also knows this won’t be a walkover. They’re getting hit hard— Operation Spiderweb, losing dominance in the Black Sea, daily strikes on Russian

Georgia to Abolish Key Oversight Bodies in 2026, Drawing Sharp EU Warnings on Democratic Backsliding

BY TEAM GT

P

arliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili this week announced that three state watchdogs — the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Personal Data Protection Service, and the Business Ombudsman’s Office — will be dissolved in early 2026.

Under the plan, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Personal Data Protection Service will shut down on March 2, 2026, with all their functions absorbed by the State Audit Office. The Business Ombudsman’s Office will be abolished even sooner, on January 1, 2026, with its duties moving under the Ministry of Economy.

Papuashvili framed the changes as steps toward strengthening Georgia’s “constitutional architecture,” reducing bureaucratic overlap, and saving roughly 20 million GEL annually. He argued that the State Audit Office has greater institutional independence and is better positioned to handle anti-corruption and data-protection responsibilities. Moving business-sector oversight into the Economy Ministry, he said, would allow faster, more coordinated responses to industry needs.

But the reforms are already prompting alarm in Brussels. The European Commission warned that Georgia must protect — not dilute — the independence of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Per-

sonal Data Protection Service, and other key oversight institutions. Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier reminded Tbilisi that the latest EU enlargement report found “setbacks” in Georgia’s anti-corruption efforts and

WILL UKRAINE LOWER THE CONSCRIPTION AGE?

very unpopular. Someone—Zelensky or a successor—will have to make that call and make service appealing.

WHAT ABOUT RUSSIA? HOW BIG WOULD THE MORALE BOOST BE? Putin wants that trophy. He’s under far more pressure than people realize—economically and politically. He needs Pokrovsk to show progress before winter slows everything down. Without it, he’s going into the winter with coffins, not gains.

There are no real “front lines” in this war. It’s essentially a 20-kilometer kill zone. You don’t mass troops in lines anymore: you rely on quick reaction forces, like the recent case in Dobropilya, where Russian troops broke through but were quickly isolated and destroyed over a couple of weeks. Nearly the entire front is watched by drones 24/7, rotating constantly. There’s almost nothing that isn’t being observed.

Kavelashvili: Despite Global Tensions, Georgia and Armenia Continue Strengthening Political, Economic and People-to-People Ties

emphasized that weakening these bodies risks pulling the country further away from its EU aspirations.

Mercier stated bluntly that “recent developments indicate that Georgia is moving further away from the EU path.”

President Mikheil Kavelashvili

BY TEAM GT

G Guillaume Mercier. Source: Caspian Post

eorgia and Armenia have maintained harmonious relations for centuries, grounded not merely in geographical proximity but in “mutual respect, trust, and unwavering friendship,” Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili said during a joint briefing with Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan.

Kavelashvili noted that 2025 has been particularly productive for deepening bilateral cooperation. “I am pleased to host the President of our friendly and strategic partner country. This is our second meeting this year — I visited Armenia on April 29. The results achieved within the framework of our strategic partnership clearly show the effective-

ness and scale of our cooperation,” he said.

The Georgian President emphasized that shared values — including protection of sovereignty, national identity, and cultural heritage — form the foundation of the two nations’ lasting partnership.

He highlighted that cooperation between Georgia and Armenia is “truly exemplary,” extending across both bilateral and multilateral formats. Kavelashvili also thanked Armenia for its consistent support for Georgia’s territorial integrity.

Discussing regional developments, he stressed the importance of stability.

“Given the rapidly changing geopolitical environment, maintaining peace in the South Caucasus has become increasingly important. Despite global tensions, we continue to strengthen our political, economic, and people-to-people ties,” Kavelashvili said.

6

BUSINESS

GEORGIA TODAY

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

Blue Sky Academy: Training Pilots to Global Standards in Georgia young as 18–19 train alongside those in their fifties or older. One remarkable student became a pilot at 67 after a lifetime of dreaming about it, bringing a career in engineering to precision in the cockpit. Another licensed Blue Sky pilot is a young prodigy who began at 17 and is already completing her flight instructor training at 20.

Alexander, a current Georgian student at Blue Sky, reflects: “Once your wheels leave the runway, all your problems are behind you. Flying is pure enjoyment.

I’d never come back down if I could get away with it!”

The academy attracts local trainees as well as international students—most often coming from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and the US. Blue Sky’s EASA compliance ensures that flight hours logged with them in Georgia count across Europe. “If a student flies 10–15 hours here, they can continue in Prague seamlessly. No extra paperwork,” Georgii says. Weekend lessons also accommodate those with full-time jobs, while Tbilisi’s affordable living allows students to settle comfortably for the duration of their training.

A Blue Sky trainer with two students. Source: IG

BY KATIE RUTH DAVIES

B

lue Sky Academy began its journey at Kladno Airport in the Czech Republic as part of the Cessna Pilot Center network, focusing from day one on high-quality pilot training. Offering courses for both aspiring airline pilots and private enthusiasts alike, the academy has earned a reputation for safety, modern equipment, and student-centered instruction.

Students train on well-maintained Cessna aircraft equipped with advanced avionics, supported by online theory courses accessible worldwide. The addition of an Airbus A320 FNPT II MCC simulator, fully EASA-compliant, cemented Blue Sky’s status as one of Central Europe’s most respected flight training providers.

EXPANSION INTO GEORGIA Two years ago, Blue Sky Academy expanded to Georgia, establishing a base at Natakhtari Airport just outside Tbilisi.

The move proved both strategic and practical. Under the leadership of General Manager Artem Kuzmenko, Deputy Head of Training and Flight Instructor

Georgii Neverov, and Theory Instructor Artem Timoshin, the academy quickly grew into a hub of mentorship, technical instruction, and inspiration.

“In Prague, winter weather isn’t perfect—low visibility, low clouds,” Georgii explains. “Georgia has perfect weather, easy visa access for students from Eastern countries, and a beautiful landscape.

Honestly, I have the best view from my office.”

Opening the academy was straightforward thanks to supportive authorities.

While infrastructure challenges exist, the environment has proven ideal for both flying and learning. Currently, the academy operates two Cessna 150 twoseaters, with a four-seater Cessna 172 set to join by year’s end. “The 172 allows students to accompany flights as observers, which some airlines require for potential pilots,” Georgii explains.

WHO ARE THE BLUE SKY STUDENTS? Blue Sky attracts a diverse mix of students, from young adults to lifelong dreamers. “The majority of our students are over 30,” Georgii notes. “They always wanted to fly but life got in the way. Some are starting as a hobby, some with a serious career goal.”

Age is no barrier, though. Students as

Georgian Wine Showcased in 20 Countries through Global Marketing Push

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

I

n the first ten months of 2025, Georgian wine has been presented at 29 international exhibitions and festivals, along with nearly 250 tastings and seminars held across the United States, Europe and Asia. The National Wine Agency stated that these activities were carried out with its financial and organizational support and reached audiences in around 20 countries.

The agency says that expanding Georgian wine’s export potential and ensuring market diversification remain main goals of its international strategy. One of its main functions is to promote Georgian wine and increase global awareness of it, especially in competitive foreign markets.

To achieve this, the National Wine Agency has been implementing marketing and promotional campaigns since 2013. These efforts target the U.S., Euro-

LEARNING TO FLY: DISCIPLINE, CONFIDENCE, AND FUN Blue Sky’s training philosophy emphasizes safety, skill, and experience. Students start visually, learning to navigate in the Cessna with minimal traffic, and gradually progress to more advanced maneuvers and instrument training.

Georgia’s low-traffic skies provide an ideal environment for new pilots. “It’s like learning to drive in an empty lot before moving into heavy traffic,” Georgii notes.

“A student may arrive with zero experience, and after just 15–17 hours of practice, you find yourself on the ground with a radio in hand, watching them take their first solo flight—a moment that’s both nerve-wracking and deeply proud,” Georgii says. “Because they don’t yet have a license, the law would normally require a qualified pilot beside them, but an instructor can instead endorse the student to fly under the instructor’s own license, placing a real sense of responsibility on both sides.”

The first solo flight is done in perfect conditions near the airport, giving students a huge confidence boost before the advance to complex maneuvers, longer routes, and solo cross-country flights. “Each decision to send a student solo is a delicate balance—the instructor must judge when eagerness

is masking unreadiness, or when fear simply needs a gentle push—and in that balance lies one of the most rewarding parts of teaching someone to fly,” Giorgii says.

Simulators also play a key role. While the Prague base has a fixed-wing simulator and the Georgia branch currently offers a helicopter simulator, many students arrive with experience on home simulators. Alexander, for instance, has logged over 800 hours online. “It takes away a lot of the fear of that first takeoff,” he says.

For beginners without such experience, Blue Sky offers Aviation English Courses to strengthen speaking, listening, reading, and phraseology skills, ensuring the new pilots and air traffic controllers will be able to communicate safely in international airspace.

AVIATION AS A CAREER PATH Since opening in Georgia, Blue Sky has grown from a single student to over 80.

Students usually begin with the Private Pilot License (PPL(A)) for airplanes or PPL(H) for helicopters—achieved after a minimum of 45 hours of real flying.

Theory lessons are flexible, available online or in person. As confidence grows, students can pursue a Night Rating, IR(A), CB-IR(A), or advanced avionics training on systems such as the GARMIN G1000, supported by eLearning and practice tests.

For those aiming for to fly professionally, the ATPL(A) Theory Course lays the foundation, CPL(A) opens doors to commercial flights, and FI(A) allows students to build hours as instructors.

“Technically, you could move straight from getting your license to flying for an airline,” Georgii says, “but it’s always better to build confidence in smaller aircraft first.”

Courses in 2025 range from roughly 3,120 GEL (1,160 USD) for PPL/BIR courses to 7,640 GEL (2,845 USD) for ATPL Theory. The academy emphasizes quality over shortcuts, ensuring that students progress safely and effectively.

Students can also rent aircraft once licensed, and Blue Sky offers an Aircraft Purchase Service for those interested in buying planes in Europe or the USA, assisting with the process from market research to legal checks.

LOOKING AHEAD: HELICOPTERS IN GEORGIA Helicopters are set to play a major role in Georgia’s aviation future, and Blue Sky is ready. The academy has secured

EASA-compliant validation for the Guimbal Cabri G2 and also offers a validated program for the Eurocopter EC120, enabling full PPL(H) training locally. “Helicopters will be a big business in Georgia,” Artem predicts, while Giorgii adds: “Beautiful Georgia is true helicopter country!”

TRAINING IN GEORGIA: A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY Georgia offers favorable weather, low air traffic, challenging yet safe terrain, and affordable living.

“From my experience flying in the US, EU, and Cyprus, I expected a big adjustment coming here, but the transition has been surprisingly smooth,” Georgii says.

“Air Traffic Control speaks perfect English, so it feels just like Europe. The main difference is procedural—you need to file flight plans and report delays. It’s a bit of a Soviet-era approach, but I see Georgia gradually moving toward a no flight-plan system.”

Georgia’s skies challenge pilots with shifting crosswinds, gusty mountain winds, and dramatic terrain. “If you learn to fly in Georgia, you can fly anywhere,” Alexander says. “It’s like driving—if you can handle the roads here, the rest of the world feels easy.”

On flying itself, he adds: “Up there, you don’t just admire the scenery—beautiful as it is. Flying a single-engine aircraft means staying sharp. You’re always thinking ahead, scanning for safe landing spots, planning for the unexpected. Some stretches, like approaching Kutaisi over that seemingly endless forest, give you nowhere to put the aircraft down. You learn to trust your training, read your instruments, and stay calm.”

Learning to fly in Georgia is demanding, but that’s clearly what makes it transformative. It doesn’t just teach you to be a pilot—it teaches you to be a capable one.

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION Blue Sky isn’t just about producing pilots—it’s about building a community.

From young students to lifelong dreamers, locals and internationals alike, the academy nurtures passion, discipline, and confidence. “Meeting so many people single-mindedly chasing the goal of a pilot’s license is incredibly rewarding,” Artem says. Giorgii adds: “You guide them from their first flight to that moment when they can take the controls alone.

That’s when you know you’ve made a difference.”

Georgia’s Vehicle Re-exports Hit $2.3 Billion in 2025

BY MARIAM RAZMADZE

I Georgian wine. Source: Georgian Journal

pean countries and South and Southeast Asia where the agency continues to intensify its work as part of Georgia’s long-term plan to diversify export destinations and strengthen the global presence of Georgian wine.

n the first ten months of 2025, Georgia re-exported a record 93,000 vehicles worth a total of $2.3 billion, marking a major milestone in the country’s automotive re-export sector.

Roughly half of all re-exported vehicles were shipped to Kyrgyzstan. According to trade data analysis, the average value of cars exported to Kyrgyzstan reached about $33,000, placing them among the higher-priced vehicles in Georgia’s reexport mix. Analysts note that demand for these higher-value vehicles in Kyrgyzstan is partly driven by dealers who resell some of them to Russia, which remains outside the system of Western trade sanctions.

Cars being exported. Source: Autostat

Other Central Asian markets saw similarly dramatic growth. Compared to the previous year, Georgian vehicle re-exports rose 494% to Tajikistan, 593% to Uzbekistan, and 2,271% to Turkmenistan, reflecting a sharp shift in regional demand.

By contrast, shipments to neighboring South Caucasus countries declined.

Exports to Azerbaijan fell by 29% to a

total value of $181 million, while reexports to Armenia dropped 48% to $46 million.

Industry representatives note that although the number of cars re-exported has fluctuated, the overall value of Georgia’s car re-export trade continues to rise due to the increasing share of higherpriced vehicles in the market.

BUSINESS

GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

7

HIT Hub: The Georgian Platform Reengineering Hospitality and Winemaking from the Inside Out

BY KESARIA KATCHARAVA

I

n today’s business landscape, technology no longer stands apart from operations: it shapes them.

But in sectors defined by history and emotion, like hospitality and winemaking, innovation has often felt intrusive. HIT Hub emerged precisely to challenge this tension.

What began as a shared observation among three professionals, that Georgian businesses were struggling to connect tradition with modern operational standards, has grown into a unified ecosystem that integrates management, consulting, training, and industry-specific technological solutions.

HIT Hub - Hospitality & IT Hub is now both a company and a philosophy: a system of thinking built on the belief that technology should not replace the human element, but strengthen it. It is a platform created in Georgia that bridges cultural heritage with contemporary business practice, showing that sectors such as hospitality and winemaking can preserve their emotional roots while embracing structural rigor.

The company’s story is inseparable from the people behind it: Lado - creative vision and operational structure, David - engineering expertise and business pragmatism, Teona - design thinking and emotional intelligence.

THE ORIGIN: A PRACTICAL NEED AND A STRATEGIC INSIGHT Vladimir (Lado) Kaperski, founder and managing partner of HIT Hub, spent years advising and restructuring hotels, helping them improve their technological and operational ecosystems. His background in management and technological transformation eventually revealed a broader problem: both hospitality and winemaking were struggling to integrate technology in a way that supported rather than disrupted their everyday realities.

David Tamarashvili, managing partner and expert in engineering and technological solutions for the wine industry, approached the issue from another angle.

As founder of Vine & Wine Group, he confronted a practical need long before HIT Hub existed: automating and consolidating winemaking processes.

“The idea first appeared years ago,” David recalls, “when I needed a unified technological solution that would reflect the entire cycle from viticulture to the final product reaching the market.”

At the same time, Lado Kaperski had been refining digital and operational systems in hotels across the country, identifying the same recurring challenge: fragmented structures, inefficient workflows, and a perception of technology as a foreign, often frustrating element.

Technology should never lead — people should.

Our job is to make technology follow

Lado Kaperski, Teona Kurasvhili, and David Tamarashvili

“We realized that this knowledge could serve more than just individual clients,” Lado says. “The experiences in both industries pushed us to build something that could transfer this expertise to a wider business audience.”

Their shared conclusion solidified into a clear philosophy: They would not begin with a program or a service; they would begin with understanding, and build from there.

• HIT.OBE direct online booking engine • HIT.RMS revenue management system • HIT.TRAIN professional training and team development • HIT.WOM operational management system for wineries This combination forms a holistic infrastructure for businesses whose workflows extend across multiple operational layers.

A CONCEPT BUILT AROUND INTEGRATION: HIT THINKING

DESIGN, IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE HUMAN ELEMENT

As Lado explains: “In hospitality and winemaking, technology had accumulated a reputation as an intruder; a result of years of negative experience. Our goal was to rewrite that narrative and turn technology into a natural part of the process.”

This approach became the foundation of HIT Thinking, the company’s core conceptual framework. The idea is simple but transformative: Innovation should serve efficiency; structure should support intuition, and people must remain at the center of every operational process.

Within this philosophy, HIT Hub integrates three major industries: hospitality, winemaking, and information technology, to create a shared space where experience, operations, and digital solutions function together rather than in isolation.

Today, the company consists of four interconnected service directions: Management, consulting, training, and technological solutions.

All of these are expressed through a portfolio of specialized products and systems: • HIT.HMS hotel management system • HIT.POS sales and payment solution • HIT.CMS channel management

Co-founder Teona Kurasvhili, director of HIT.Design, places equal importance on structure, aesthetics, and user experience: “Technology is only a tool. It’s the right structure, organizational vision, and practical experience that ultimately shape success.”

Under the larger HIT Hub umbrella lies another crucial component: Fix IT, a company that provides IT environment management and professional services, an offering increasingly essential in a market where digital reliability is no longer optional.

With this addition, HIT Hub has moved beyond being a provider of hospitality and winemaking solutions. It has become a comprehensive ecosystem a single space that integrates technology, operational expertise, and human capacity.

“Our goal is to give every partner access to a full ‘one-window’ experience,” Teona explains. “We don’t sell standalone services or technologies: We deliver a complete experience.”

In the wine sector, David emphasizes a critical shift: “Where everything begins with emotion, we turn digital tools into a sustainable operational backbone. For the first time in Georgia, wineries can access a full cycle through WOM, from production control to sales. This brings

structure, standardized processes, and reliable data for informed decisionmaking.”

With the help of their Canadian partners, HIT Hub is currently reshaping expectations of how the Georgian wine industry can operate in the 21st century.

Training is another central pillar. HIT. Train has become one of the company’s strongest assets, bringing together seasoned professionals who create ongoing value by strengthening business teams and sharing actionable knowledge.

A YEAR OF GROWTH, PARTNERSHIPS AND MARKET VALIDATION In its first year, HIT Hub has delivered more than ten projects across hospitality and winemaking, while also establishing strategic international partnerships. The company is now the official regional representative of Yanolja, NewHotel, Kelsius, 360winery, Accountdynamics, and others.

This gave Georgian businesses access to global-standard tools and practices previously inaccessible to small and medium companies due to cost and availability.

Bringing an international wine-technology partner into Georgia was particularly challenging, David notes, due to the market’s modest size. Yet 360 Winery not only joined; it became an active supporter, contributing significantly to pilot projects that will soon be presented to wineries and academic institutions nationwide.

WHAT’S AHEAD: NEW SERVICES AND SECTOR INTEGRATION Looking forward, HIT Hub is preparing to launch several new service directions: • HIT.Analytic data analysis and reporting to support evidence-based decisions

We don’t sell solutions or products — we sell experiences • HIT.Cost cost accounting and revenue control for hotels and wineries • HIT.Law specialized legal services for industries where regulations and contracts are mission-critical Parallel to these, the team is developing HIT.Train+, a digital training platform, as well as a new platform for design services.

In the wine industry, the team is working toward a structural shift: “We want to create a new-level network where small and medium producers operate within a shared system,” David explains.

“A model where resources are combined and companies enter the market with unified standards.”

To support this vision, HIT Hub is building a collaborative project that will bring multiple factories together into a single warehouse and distribution system: The first step toward deeper integration in Georgia’s wine sector.

Teona adds: “Interior and graphic design are a natural extension of our philosophy. Starting next year, HIT.Design will officially become part of our portfolio, offering branding, interior design, and visual communication ensuring a consistent style and mindset across all touchpoints.”

8

SOCIETY

GEORGIA TODAY

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

Georgia’s Plastics Ban Meets Circular Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges

BY KATIE RUTH DAVIES

W

hen the Georgian government last week announced an all-out ban on singleuse plastics from January 1, 2026, it framed the move as a bold effort to tackle environmental damage. For policymakers, it is more than an ecological initiative—it signals that Georgia is ready to modernize its waste system and demonstrate leadership ahead of global climate summits like COP 30.

For the private sector, however, the regulation presents significant economic challenges.

The ban targets single-use plastics that come into contact with food. Under new technical regulations, the production, import, and sale of items such as plastic forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks, plates, straws, stirrers, and expanded polystyrene containers will be prohibited, except for export. Public catering establishments, including restaurants, canteens, and food stalls, will no longer be allowed to serve ready-to-eat food using these items. Transitional periods allow businesses some leeway: • 3 months to sell previously stocked items, • 6 months to continue using plastic containers for food deliveries to eateries, • 1 year for other plastic food-contact materials.

The National Food Agency, the Environmental Supervision Department, and the Revenue Service will enforce the regulation, which reflects Georgia’s commitment to reducing plastic waste, much of which ends up in rivers, coastal areas, and landfills.

Business leaders have voiced concerns about the financial impact. Shota Burjanadze, vice president of the Georgian Restaurateurs’ Association, warned that

The plastic revolution. Source: FB

replacing single-use plastics with ecofriendly alternatives will drive costs up, estimating that “delivery services could become 5–10% more expensive for consumers.” This raises the question of who will absorb these costs: retailers, food outlets, or consumers?

Public officials defend the ban as necessary. Nino Tandilashvili, First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA), emphasized balancing public health, environmental safety, and private-sector development: “I believe that, through joint efforts, we can develop a model that supports public health, environmental safety, and the sustainable development of the private sector.” She offered scientific evidence on the risks: “Numerous studies and reports clearly demonstrate the harmful effects of plastic use on human health and environmental pollution. The state, private sector, and donor organizations must … replace them with alternatives that are safe for human health and the environment.”

Deputy Minister Solomon Pavliashvili presented the plastics ban as integral to

wider environmental goals: “Our goal is to ensure coordination with the sector and develop regulations that balance environmental, health, and economic interests.” He noted the urgency of tackling plastic waste, which accounts for a significant portion of municipal solid waste.

Georgia generates around 900,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually, over 75% of which ends up in landfills. Plastic constitutes 12–16% of this, translating to 132,000–176,000 tons annually. In 2023, single-use plastic consumption alone reached 4,000 tons, highlighting the prevalence of disposables. Yet, these figures also indicate potential: Georgia aims to recycle 50% of its plastic waste by 2025 and 80% by 2030.

Environmental organizations highlight the need for a circular economy approach.

The Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN) has long influenced plastic-waste policy in Georgia. Its “End Plastic Pollution in Georgia” project, launched in 2024 with UNDP and Norway, supports government efforts to build circular waste management models. Nana Takvarelia, Head of the project,

spotighted the importance of engagement: “Plastic pollution is devastating economies and environments … the circular economy … is crucial for the healthy and clean future of the generations to come.” Laurent Nicole, CENN Executive Director, stressed civic responsibility: “Civic education and public awareness is a crucial element. The citizen is a key factor. If individuals are not able to respect their neighbors with regard to waste, we won’t go far.”

Tbilisi Circular Labs (TCL) piloted reuse systems in June 2024, supported

by CENN, GIZ, and ICLEI. Part of the global “Circular City Labs – Testing Reusable Packaging Systems in Cities” project, TCL aims to scale reusable packaging, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and empower women entrepreneurs in Georgia’s circular economy.

Two pilot initiatives illustrate practical applications: • Fabrika, a multifunctional urban space in Tbilisi, launched a reusable cup system across bars and restaurants.

Previously, up to a million disposable cups were discarded annually. Customers leave a small deposit and return cups for reuse. Salome Kuprashvili explained: “Disposable cups present a challenge—separating them for recycling is often difficult, especially when Fabrika is crowded. Introducing reusables eliminates the need for recycling and more effectively supports our environmental goals.”

• CAMPA, a Georgian beverage company, rolled out a bottle return and reuse system in collaboration with Tbilisi International Airport and Cavea cinemas. Empty glass bottles are collected, washed, sterilized, and reused.

Ana Chkhetia, project manager, said: “Implementing a reusable bottle system requires coordination, but it’s both environmentally sustainable and economically viable. Over time, it strengthens customer loyalty and brand value.”

UNDP also highlights synergies

between business and environmental goals. LL Plast, a packaging producer in Kakheti, reprocesses around 30 tons of plastic monthly and plans to expand. Its recycling model creates jobs, reduces import dependence, and lowers production costs, showing that environmental responsibility can be profitable.

CENN’s National Plastic Waste Prevention Program sets ambitious targets: collecting 85,000 tons of plastic by 2025 and 135,000 tons by 2030. However, challenges remain: infrastructure is underdeveloped, local governments often lack capacity for waste separation, and recycling standards are not yet aligned with EU quality criteria. Both CENN and UNDP emphasize that collaboration among government, business, and civil society is critical for success.

CONCLUSION: BRIDGING AMBITION AND REALITY Georgia’s 2026 plastics ban is more than regulation—it is a high-stakes bet on a sustainable future. The government signals that plastic pollution is a serious concern and a key part of a broader circular economy strategy. Businesses, however, warn that without flexible timelines and financial support, the transition could be burdensome.

Environmental groups and development partners highlight opportunities: a circular economy can be profitable.

Projects by CENN and UNDP show that companies can benefit from recycling, reuse, and innovation. The real test will be whether ecological sustainability and economic viability converge.

If the ban is implemented effectively with stakeholder cooperation, Georgia could reduce plastic pollution and set a regional example. If costs are too high or businesses feel unsupported, the policy risks becoming symbolic rather than transformational. The coming months will show us whether Georgia can turn its plastic problem into a greeneconomy opportunity.

How Does It Feel in the Digitized World?

BLOG BY NUGZAR B. RUHADZE

I

wonder how many people around the globe would say – not utterly happy. Could be billions, but who knows; those who have never felt the gist of natural (not virtual) life might say – extremely happy, and this is one of our modern-day discrepancies.

Today’s overly digitized world is managed and controlled by digital media, the classification of which is changing on a permanent basis, the reason for this being the expansion of the margins of contemporary technologies and, concomitantly, the enlargement of the scope of its activity as well as coverages.

The digital media is taken by some of us in Sakartvelo as consumer knowledge and involvement on a screen and within the range of myriad platforms like mobiles, computers, televisions, smartphones, tablets, iPads, not to mention digital video, music, videogames, podcasts, e-mail, e-books, e-commerce, e-learning and what not.

Digital media’s job is mainly to entertain, inform and educate (exactly as was the work of nondigital, i.e., real, manual, analogue, offline, physical, mechanical means of mass communication) by means of creating digital content, putting all that on the screen for a user to enjoy and utilize.

Meanwhile, if we delve into the depths of the Internet space, we might come across umpteen definitions of digital media, but on the whole, let us limit ourselves to what has just been said.

In our modern real life, digital media incorporates so many different things that it has become practically impossible to name a segment of human activity which can survive without the services of digital media. It is important to emphasize here that any person, firm or public office, even the arts and music, is involved in the content of our digital life and work.

To put all this in simpler terms, digital media has glued us to a screen without which we can no longer continue living.

Behind digital media, worldwide, there are probably millions of computer software engineers and programmers, IT specialists and computer designers involved in this type of work.

These are the technically savvy people who design the applications allowing for the creation or distribution of content to us, facilitate sales, marketing, distribution, public relations, human resources, financial and project management that comprise countless occupations and opportunities around the globe, further propelling the digital lifestyle of a human being.

This is certainly a clear sign of progress on Earth, and the success and indispensability of that sign is universally recognized, including in Georgia, only we don’t know how happy, how concretely and specifically happy that digitized way of living has made us in life.

Happy or not happy, there are so many things that are only the consequence of media production, digital files that are created by thousands in a second, enhanced, encoded and distributed using different methods of processing via computer hardware and software applications.

Digital media. Image source: trendsresearch

Digital media content creators rely on creative production and cutting-edge technology to produce goods that are cultural in nature, such as interactive games, virtual worlds, cross-platform media and others.

It’s not rocket science to understand that we happen to be trapped, severely stuck and surrounded by the exigence of making digital consumers of ourselves.

Otherwise, modern life for us may turn into factual hell, and there is nobody out there who can help, and instead of sitting and waiting for the mana from the

skies, it’s better to go ahead and learn, get skilled in using the digitized means of survival.

The reason I am saying this is that there are people around, both old and young, who are trying to escape the digitized way of life and means of survival. Even worse, there are some who don’t even want to come close to where digits operate and determine for us what to do and how to behave.

Let’s beware of the imminent future of digits, within which none of us will be able to operate unless we are very well-

versed in what the modern world calls the existence in the realm of digits; call it figures if it makes us more comfortable.

I hate to be dependent on digits, but, against my will and character, I am learning it all like crazy to meet the necessities suggested by our accelerated way of life, having nothing to do with our regular, mundane, commonplace existence within which a genuine human happiness was absolutely possible without any digital juggling.

No longer!

SOCIETY

GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

9

4th Winter in Tbilisi

Waste dumped in Dighomi Meadows. Photo by the author

BLOG BY TONY HANMER

T

his has become a tradition: summers in Svaneti, winters in Tbilisi. I never wanted to be “one of those people.”

My my wife’s and my life is double anyway. Her family are in Kakheti or this city, as are our churches and so many friends. Wintering up there meant we had so little time to see them all, particularly Lali’s mother, now in her eighties, with growing frailty. We’ve already had to travel from there to first Canada and then eastern Georgia, for the funerals of our fathers. So we need to make full use of this remaining time.

Plus, our Svaneti guest house was getting so few visitors in winter anyway.

This fact, plus the arrival of a Spar shop in our village to tide people over through winter, made it so much more reasonable to migrate south-east for the winters.

The final factor is winter’s worse electricity and water freeze troubles in

Svaneti. So, here we are, not feeling guilty.

Recharging for the busy summer. Catching up on family, friendships, city arts culture, and more.

I take a long photographic walk through our Dighomi neighborhood to see what has changed since we left in May. One thing is the planting of a set of new signs forbidding fires and the dumping of household or industrial garbage. Our seemingly tireless eco-warrior friend, Anna, who started the Dighomi Meadows NGO to address these and other issues, is responsible for the signs. But the garbage remains, and there is plenty

of new dumping in evidence as well. I suppose that there must come some proof, such as on video cameras, of who is making this disastrous mess; and then some hefty fines. The nature here is spectacular: ponds, flora and fauna, forests. But you have to ignore the encroaching environmental ruin to appreciate it.

Woodpeckers. Magpies. Corvids. Otters, even, apparently; certainly their cousins, nutria. Flowers of many kinds, and blackberries. Rushes edging the ponds. Not worth saving?

Anna is also tackling the woefully inadequate local public transport with City Hall. There is a single minivan-bus serving between us on Bob Walsh Street and metro Sarajishvili.

The presence of many sports facilities on our road is welcome: soccer fields, a swimming pool, gymnastics arena and, latest, an ice palace to open soon. But they bring so many youth to the street that that single minivan is always overfull. Also, new high rises going up in the area with their increasing local population will further burden this meager transport. We NEED a bus line too.

Our first two winters back in Tbilisi were in Saburtalo. There, too, we enjoyed the local parks. But here, really on the edge of the city, we are minutes’ walk away from real, proper nature. But you could never call it unspoiled, sadly. Seems that if the dumping isn’t expressly forbidden and punished, it will be done.

Then, once you do start outlawing and cracking down on it, the habit is there.

I get it: we need SOMEWHERE to put our trash. But in the wilderness? Really?

Greed trumps shame, buries it in rubble and chemical poisons. Chokes it.

I have participated in one local garbage cleanup day, along with my neighbors, organized by Anna. But the garbage returns: more correctly, people continue bringing it. This can be most disheartening. But we continue, telling ourselves

Waste dumped in Dighomi Meadows. Photo by the author

it’s worth it.

The wildlife will try to cling and flourish. It was here first, anyway. We must allow it to exist here, for both its sake and ours. Or is there no right and wrong?

Who, really, believes THAT? The postscript to this story is that, while I was out taking photos for it, some plainclothes police drove up in an unmarked car and asked to see the photos on my phone. They did identify themselves with badges when I asked them to. Then, some questions about who I am, what I was shooting (which

apparently did not interest them), and we parted. What were they actually looking for?

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

CULTURE

The Cartography of the Unfinished: David Meskhi and Tony Just’s “We Are Seekers” as a Study in Perpetual Becoming REVIEW BY IVAN NECHAEV

I

n the bright, controlled quiet of TBC Concept Gallery, We Are Seekers unfolds like a manual for navigating human thresholds. David Meskhi and Tony Just construct a shared terrain where images behave as porous organisms and memory turns into a working material. Curated by LC Queisser, the exhibition cultivates a field of open-ended search—an epistemic zone where inquiry itself becomes a medium as tactile as paint or photographic grain.

Both artists speak about seeking in a tone usually reserved for spiritual apprenticeships. The title reads less as an announcement and more as an initiation ritual: a reminder that art grows through desire for something still out of reach. In this sense, the exhibition belongs to a lineage that includes the wandering philosophers of antiquity, the medieval mystics mapping celestial diagrams, the Situationists drifting through urban semiotics, and even the Soviet-era athletes rigorously training the body into an instrument of utopian projection. Meskhi and Just activate this genealogy with a contemporary pulse—restless, errant, alert to the world’s trembling surfaces.

TONY JUST’S BERLIN YEAR AS ALCHEMICAL LABORATORY Tony Just describes his works as “based on drawings, memories and accidents.”

The line carries the discreet precision of a craftsman who senses the metaphysics embedded in chance. Every accident becomes a hinge toward a new visual syntax. The Berlin studio serves as a site

where lived experience, digressive marks, and intuitive gestures progress toward hybrid structures.

His surfaces often resemble palimpsests—layers of time sedimented into color. In museum terms, they recall the condition reports of fragile frescoes: traces of previous states visible beneath the new.

Just cultivates this archaeology of the canvas as a mode of thinking. Memories operate as anchors; accidents open avenues; drawings function as connective tissue between the conscious intention of the artist and the atmospheric forces shaping the work. Through these combined impulses, the paintings gain the aura of liturgical objects—quiet, attentive, susceptible to revelation.

In contemporary sociological language, such practice illustrates the “distributed authorship” of an artist who collaborates with environment, intuition, and the unpredictable rhythms of daily life. The paintings speak with the tone of something discovered rather than produced.

Their forms appear like fragments of a world still undergoing self-assembly.

DAVID MESKHI AND THE AFTERLIFE OF THE ATHLETE If Just studies the ghostly logic of the mark, Meskhi approaches the human body as an archive. Raised in the atmosphere of Soviet gymnastics, his visual vocabulary carries the resonance of discipline, repetition, and the ritualistic elegance of sport. For many years, his photographs explored Georgian youth as agents of freedom and gravity alike. We Are Seekers introduces a different chapter: athletes “removed from the mat,” resituated within unfamiliar visual ecosystems.

the atmosphere. Meskhi’s shadow-like bodies and Just’s layered abstractions radiate a kind of contemplative charge.

One senses the artworks as interlocutors: companions in the act of seeking.

This is where the sociological dimension gains particular sharpness. The exhibition reflects a global condition marked by accelerated change and fragmented identities. The seeker becomes a figure of our era—the individual navigating shifting environments, layered histories, hybrid cultures. The gallery transforms into a microcosm of contemporary subjectivity: fluid, searching, perpetually in dialogue with invisible forces.

Advert for the exhibition. Source: TBC Concept

TBILISI AS A CAPITAL OF RESTLESS VISION

Meskhi’s images traverse the border between corporeal presence and spectral outline. He describes the sensation as “moving through shadows toward something not yet fully seen.” This articulation echoes the phenomenological writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, for whom perception is an encounter with what is still emerging. In Meskhi’s prints and manipulated photographs, bodies linger in transitional states. They appear suspended—as if captured in mid-metamorphosis.

The physical and digital manipulations intensify this effect. Each layer pushes the athlete away from documentary clarity and toward the aesthetic territory of myth. The figures hold the aura of demiurges practicing an unnamed discipline.

They carry the history of the Soviet gymnasium, the turbulence of post-Soviet youth culture, and the contemporary global appetite for reinterpreting archival materials. Meskhi treats the athlete as a

Both artists carry histories intertwined with Tbilisi’s evolving artistic landscape.

Just spent significant time here during residencies, contributing to the intellectual fabric of the city through teaching, murals, and print experiments. Meskhi shapes Tbilisi’s visual memory with a presence that stretches from local youth culture to international museum circuits.

Their collaboration situates the city as a node where global and local artistic trajectories intersect.

TBC Concept Gallery becomes a stage for this convergence. The exhibition participates in the ongoing transformation of Tbilisi into an analytical, selfreflective cultural capital—one that cultivates transnational dialogues without dissolving its own specificity. The seekers in the gallery mirror the seekers walking the city’s streets: readers, students, artists, migrants, wanderers, workers. Each brings a layer of meaning to the broader social fabric.

vessel through which collective memory continues its long, unhurried rehearsal.

THE EXHIBITION AS PHENOMENOLOGICAL CHAMBER The curatorial structure of We Are Seekers enhances the exhibition’s metaphysical undertones. LC Queisser positions the works in a choreography that simulates a journey: the viewer moves through stages that resemble thresholds rather than rooms. Each wall behaves like a fragment of an unfinished map. The combined effect evokes the labyrinthine spaces described by Jorge Luis Borges—architectures designed for wandering minds.

Uncertainty becomes a productive climate rather than a conceptual theme. The viewer enters a state reminiscent of early 20th-century museum ethnography, when scholars believed that proximity to ritual objects could induce altered perception.

Here, the objects themselves generate

10

CULTURE

GEORGIA TODAY

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

ATINATI Cultural Center Presents Exhibition Featuring Merab Abramishvili’s Personal Collection

ATINATI Private Collection

BY TEAM GT

A

TINATI’S Cultural Center continues its exhibition series - ATINATI Collection, and for the first time presents Merab Abramishvili’s personal collection. This exhibition is part of Baia Gallery’s mega exhibition cycle Merab Abramishvili – Transparent Memory. The project, which is located in ATINATI’s exhibition hall and two exhibition spaces of Baia Gallery, offers a rare, wide-reaching view of Abramishvili’s creative world. The aim is simple yet ambitious: to introduce the artist to the global stage as one of Georgia’s cultural icons.

ATINATI, a non-profit foundation, has long worked to share Georgian culture with a broader audience. Through its media platform, ATINATI.COM, and its Cultural Center, the foundation highlights the richness of Georgian art and history. Its growing art collection—featuring works across different media— shows the ongoing story of Georgian art

ATINATI Private Collection

from early modernism to the contemporary scene, and from names like Pirosmani to Andro Wekua.

A key goal for ATINATI is to bring Georgia’s cultural heritage to international attention while supporting artists at home. The new exhibition does just that. Visitors can explore around 50 works by Merab Abramishvili, following his development as an artist and seeing the full breadth of his painting style in one place.

Abramishvili holds a special place in ATINATI’s collection. In fact, his work was one of the main inspirations behind the foundation’s decision to build a collection at all. ATINATI was drawn to his fresh approach to religious themes and iconography, as well as his expressive, instantly recognizable style. His ability to blend traditional imagery with a modern, personal perspective made his work especially powerful to the collector.

ATINATI acquired most of Abramishvili’s works from international auctions and private collectors abroad before bringing them back to Georgia—part of the foundation’s mission to locate and return important pieces of Georgian culture.

Merab Abramishvili (March 16, 1957 – July 22, 2006, Tbilisi) is one of the most outstanding artists in Georgian contemporary art, whose significance is already recognized both locally and internationally.

Merab Abramishvili belongs to the “eighties” generation. The 1980s was a time marked by complex political, social, and cultural changes in Georgia. The era of the Soviet Union was coming to an end, and a new reality was emerging.

Artists faced difficult choices, and it is in this context that Abramishvili’s creative position becomes especially intriguing. He counters destruction with creation, and opposes anti-humanism with humanism. Through his paintings, he presents a harmonious and universal vision of the world—one that symbolizes paradise and eternity. All the themes he touches resonate with universal human issues.

Merab Abramishvili’s expressive style is truly unique. The artist employs the levkas technique, historically used in the Middle Ages for creating wall paintings and icons. His works, executed on plywood coated with levkas (a plaster and

glue base), evoke the impression of frescos. Layers of tempera paint are applied in alternating spots, outlined by expressive contours, enriched with detailed drawing, and characterized by effects of lightness, transparency, and luminosity.

The levkas technique, vibrant tempera colors, the harmonious interplay of color and line, the importance of form, and the unique texture, all define the distinctive style of Abramishvili’s art. His work sometimes carries the monumental grandeur of frescos, while simultaneously displaying the precision and detail of icon painting. The modern reinterpretation of archaic tradition is a defining feature of his artistic vision.

Merab Abramishvili’s work unites the traditions of Georgian culture with influences from both Eastern and Western art, all thoughtfully reinterpreted in a contemporary way. In his art, national identity is seamlessly integrated with global culture. That is why his work transcends local appreciation and holds such significance on the international stage.

“The artist worked within the bound-

ATINATI Private Collection

aries and aesthetic climate shaped by the inertia of medieval Georgian painting, the weight of tradition, the synthesis of Western and Eastern cultures, and the cultural codes of the global art scene,” says Baia Tsikoridze, art historian and founder of Baia Gallery. “His work reflects the patterns and experiences of world culture, while his style offers interpretations informed by these influences.”

Merab Abramishvili’s works are kept at the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts in Georgia, as well as in significant local and international private collections.

Merab Abramishvili’s creative work is one of the most remarkable phenomena in contemporary Georgian painting. He created and left a unique artistic legacy that synthesizes Georgian national traditions with global art trends. He crafted an artistic world where the idea of eternity and the continuity of life prevails.

ATINATI’S goal through this exhibition cycle, and by presenting the artist’s work on such a scale, was to permanently inscribe Merab Abramishvili’s name on the cultural map of world heritage.

CULTURE

GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2025

11

Smoke on the Water in the Caucasian Night: How Deep Purple Turned the Tbilisi Sports Palace into a Temporary Museum of Collective Memory

Deep Purple. Photo by Rick Mkhitarian

REVIEW BY IVAN NECHAEV

T

he evening of 16 November in Tbilisi transformed the Sports Palace into an environment that resembled a vast anthropological chamber. Deep Purple appeared onstage as the custodians of a fifty-year cultural archive, and the audience moved through the space as visitors inside a living museum. The hall filled with people long before the lights dimmed, and the delayed start charged the air with a slow ritualistic tension. The venue’s acoustic brightness carried the sound with an immediacy that framed the performance as an intimate encounter between legends and listeners.

This closeness created a scenographic effect typical of major rock venues from the 1970s, when band and audience formed a single organism. In Tbilisi, the

same structure emerged again: the crowd became a co-curator of the event, shaping the concert’s affective temperature with voices, gestures, and the kinetic tremor of collective anticipation.

Deep Purple’s presence in Georgia carries an unusual cultural weight. Their music functions as a transnational archive that travels through generations. The familiar riffs created an acoustic axis for the evening, a line of continuity between the band’s early years and the contemporary Georgian audience that grew up hearing these chords on vinyl, cassettes, radio shows, and later YouTube playlists.

From the standpoint of museum studies, the concert worked like an exhibition of living heritage. Each hit shaped its own gallery, curated through the band’s gestures, lighting cues, and the audience’s emotional response. Rock classics are usually understood as an inventory of popular music history, yet in this setting they acquired a ceremonial aura. The Sports Palace offered a monumental

frame, and the sound system amplified each phrase with a clarity that supported the concert’s immersive quality. Viewers described the acoustics as unexpectedly articulate, and this sonic transparency allowed the melodies to appear as conserved artefacts restored to brilliance.

This unity produced a heightened emotional rhythm. The gesture of listening gained almost sacred qualities. Many listeners spoke afterward about the sense of proximity to the musicians, and this closeness functioned as a catalyst for an intensified musical experience. Rock concerts often create an illusion of communion; in Tbilisi that evening the sensation turned into a shared concentration that resembled the atmosphere of a mass performance inside an urban cathedral of sound.

The band’s music unfolded as a field of lived experience. Guitar solos evoked an improvisational freedom comparable to the spontaneity of jazz or the epic sweep of Romantic symphonies. These elements created an aesthetic event in which the past and present interacted through sound. In this sense, the concert became a discourse about continuity — a shared awareness that cultural memory breathes through the persistence of performance.

Tbilisi’s Sports Palace often acts as a hybrid structure that shifts between mass entertainment, political gatherings, and cultural performances. On this November night it served as an architectural container that shaped the concert’s atmosphere. The height of the ceiling supported wide acoustic reflections, and the large hall created a sense of magnitude. The crowd filled the seats and stood in dense clusters, transforming the building into a resonant chamber for collec-

Deep Purple. Photo by Rick Mkhitarian

tive emotion.

Although audiences waited longer than the scheduled start, the arrival of the band produced an immediate transition into an elevated mood. This shift revealed the psychological mechanics of concertgoing: expectation, tension, relief, and immersion. These stages established the dramaturgy of the evening, and each phase helped create a memory structure that many described afterward with clear enthusiasm.

Deep Purple’s Tbilisi performance worked as a complex cultural event — a museum of memory, a sociological ritual,

a philosophical reflection, and a musical celebration. The audience filled the hall with steady enthusiasm, the sound resonated through the space with clarity, and the legendary hits created a shared emotional field that illuminated the evening.

The city witnessed a night where rock history entered the Georgian cultural landscape with renewed intensity. The concert will remain part of Tbilisi’s sonic memory: a passionate intersection of global heritage and local experience, carried by a riff that continues to cross borders and generations.

Gori Women’s Choir Marks Vatican Jubilee with Concert in the Pantheon

BY TEAM GT

A

notable cultural event took place in Rome on Friday, when the Gori Women’s Chamber Choir performed a special concert in honor of the Vatican’s Jubilee year. Supported

by Georgia’s Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of Georgia, the choir brought Georgian polyphony to one of the city’s most historic settings.

The Vatican Jubilee, celebrated once every 25 years, has been a defining Roman tradition since the 1300s. As part of this year’s programme, the Gori Women’s Choir sang on 21 November at 17:30 inside the Pantheon (the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyres). The performance offered audiences a rare chance to hear Georgian choral music in a venue known more often for its architecture than for live vocal performance.

The Gori Women's Choir at "Riga Sings 2025." Source: interkultur

The story of the Gori Women’s Choir reaches back to 1970, when it was founded as a school ensemble in the Georgian town of Gori. What began as a student

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group gradually developed into a respected chamber choir, recognised for its precision and its commitment to traditional Georgian polyphony.

The choir’s direction shifted significantly when Teona Tsiramua became artistic director in 2013. Under her leadership, the ensemble expanded its rep-

ertoire, taking on both classical Georgian works and contemporary compositions.

Tsiramua often describes the choir’s method in simple terms: steady work, careful listening, and trust among the singers.

Their international profile grew steadily. In 2016, the choir collaborated with British-Georgian singer Katie Melua on her album In Winter, a project recorded largely in Gori and widely praised for its clarity and warmth. The collaboration brought global attention to the choir and introduced many listeners to the sound of Georgian polyphony for the first time.

In recent years, the ensemble has performed across Europe, participated in major festivals, and contributed recordings to broader artistic projects. Yet their focus remains consistent: to present Georgian choral music with authenticity and discipline. Their performance in the Pantheon was a wonderful continuation of that mission.

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

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