The Tbilisi city government’s takeover of management decisions for three popular resort towns is raising questions about whether Georgia’s promotion of tourism comes at the expense of self-government.
The Georgian government is facing pressure to open an investigation into the conduct of riot police during a May 26 protest in Tbilisi that left four people dead.
In the first decade-plus following the Soviet Union’s collapse, Georgians showed themselves to be a protest-happy people. But local experts say Georgian citizens are now losing steam, with apathy taking the place of activism.
A recent police move to break up a hunger strike by war veterans highlights a growing sense of frustration among those who fought in Georgia’s early post-Soviet wars. Many veterans for those conflicts in the early 1990s complain about what they see as a lack of respect and state assistance.
Rather than generate enthusiasm and buzz, the adoption of a new constitution in Georgia seems to have exposed a vast reserve of popular political apathy.
An outsourcing deal designed to enhance the reach of a government-run Russian-language television channel in Georgia instead threatens to bog down the station in controversy.
