Lela Kunchulia is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Georgian Service.
An electoral college is expected to choose Mikheil Kavelashvili, a 53-year-old former footballer and right-wing populist, as Georgia's next president. But with the country rocked by anti-government protests, the incumbent Salome Zurabishvili has said she isn't going anywhere.
Georgian Dream politicians often blame the country's ills on a mysterious "global war party." It has been invoked again amid the turmoil over the "foreign agent" law, seemingly to shore up support with the promotion of populist rhetoric.
The Georgian Service spoke to protesters, journalists, and others affected by police actions and apparent thug attacks on demonstrators and other Georgians.
Aslan Bzhania, the pro-Kremlin leader of Abkhazia, is pushing for a version of Russia's controversial "foreign agents" law in the Georgian breakaway region. NGOs, activists, and regional experts say it is the latest step by Bzhania to silence them, anger the West, and please Moscow.
An international investigation into the health of Georgian ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili has taken a strange turn as a doctor is accused of sneaking out biological samples in his shoes.
The planned rollout of a "foreign influence" law went up in smoke and tear gas in part because the ruling Georgian Dream party underestimated domestic and international anger and mistrust.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili's response to right-wing threats and violence against sexual minorities and journalists seemed to defend the majority's right to impose its will on society.
Georgia’s Orthodox Church has been rocked by scandal, intrigue, murder plots -- and worst of all for the conservative church, accusations of homosexuality. According to at least one observer, it may never recover.
The remote Pankisi Gorge in northeastern Georgia, home to a Muslim minority, was once the site of a military crackdown against Chechen fighters. More recently, the region has seen young men leaving to fight in Syria and Iraq. But many residents are trying to shake the association with militancy.
The economic crisis in Greece is sending painful shock waves through Georgia. The flow of as much as $20 million a month in remittances from the tens of thousands of Georgians working in Greece has fallen off sharply, and many of them are being forced to return home.
An uptick in crime across Georgia in the last couple of days is making waves as the country undergoes its first-ever peaceful transition of political power. During the run-up to the October 1 elections, President Mikheil Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement charged that an opposition victory would be a victory for organized crime. Now a bank robbery and a few similar incidents have some Georgians wondering.
