❗️Vakhtang Kikabidze died.

"Buba", as everyone called him in Georgia.
The actor died at the age of 84. In recent years he has been seriously ill.

🇬🇪🛫🇨🇳 After a three-year break, China Southern Airlines are returning to the Georgian aviation market.

According to the company, during winter flights from Urumqi to Tbilisi will be carried out once a week, and during summer they will fly 3 times a week.
ℹ️ In 2019, China Southern Airlines operated 163 flights to Tbilisi and served 38,725 passengers.
❗️Experts consider the Chinese market to be one of the most promising, along with Turkey and the United States in 2023, and predict an increase in tourist flow from there by 3-4 times.

🇬🇪🇺🇦 Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili expressed condolences to the Ukrainian people after the tragedy in the Dnipro.

🇦🇿🛫🇬🇪 The Azerbaijani airline Buta Airwais is starting flights from Baku to Batumi.

Flights will be carried out from June 11 on an EMBRAER 190 aircraft and will be operated every Friday and Sunday.
🎫 Tickets cost 49-79 euros one way. They are already available on the airline's website.

🏘🛍 An outlet town will appear near Tbilisi, which will feature more than 120 brands and companies.

The Georgian Outlet and Resorts Group announces that the first project in the region will be launched soon, it's construction is underway in the area of ​​the Lilo economic zone. Most designs are local or ordered from Dubai. The outlet town will be located on an area of ​​10 hectares, and investments in it will amount to about $100 million. In total, Outlet Village will feature more than 120 brands, 22 of which have not previously worked on the Georgian market. The opening of the location is scheduled for September 2023.

🎿🚫 Local residents in Gudauri do not allow foreign ski instructors to work.

Several people have already approached me with the same messages that “their own” laws apply at the winter resort. They are intimidated by forbidding them to train skiers and snowboarders. Threats come to instructors from different countries, among them: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and even Europeans (one of the applicants is an Austrian). Locals are forbidding them to work, threatening physical violence or equipment breakdown. According to eyewitnesses, the local police do not take any action and do not respond to allegations. I know from friends and acquaintances that the situation in Gudauri in recent years is really difficult. Conflicts with local residents are regular, reaching fights and tragic incidents.

💰⚠️ One of the largest Georgian enterprises, Rustavi Azot, has been sold.

100% of the shares of the largest chemical enterprise for the production of mineral fertilizers and industrial chemistry in the Transcaucasus from "E U Investments" was bought by Singapore's "Indorama Corporation". It acquired all 100% of the shares of the Georgian company. The cost and terms of the deal were not specified. Indorama Corporation is one of the largest strategic investors in Georgia. It intends to invest significant resources in the modernization, development and expansion of the enterprise.
ℹ️ According to the results of 10 months of 2022, nitrogen fertilizers took the fourth place in the ranking of the country's main export commodities. They accounted for 5.1% of the total, and the cost exceeded the amount of 207 million dollars. Exports of nitrogen fertilizers more than doubled in 2022.

🧑‍🏫👶 From 16.01 classes have resumed in schools and municipal kindergartens in Georgia.

The holidays lasted more than 20 days. Doctors urge parents not to let their children go to school or kindergarten with symptoms of colds. According to them, rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, the so-called Hong Kong strain, influenza type H3N2 and several subtypes of covid-19 are widespread and frequent in the country.

🇷🇺➡️🇬🇪 For 8 months of 2022, Russian citizens purchased more than 28,000 buildings, structures, apartments and land plots in Georgia.

From January 1 to September 9, 2022, the ownership of 12,335 citizens of the Russian Federation for 15,164 buildings and structures was registered, of which 13,262 are residential apartments. During the same period, 10,975 citizens of the Russian Federation registered ownership of 13,850 land plots in Georgia. How many of them are persons with dual citizenship is not specified in the statistics.
ℹ️ The above information is obtained using the electronic and automatic controls of the "National Public Registry Agency".

👮🏻‍♂️ The Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of 6 men convicted in the case of violence against journalists on July 5, 2021 by one year.

Instead of 5 years in prison, six previously convicted men will stay there for 4 years. They were charged under Part 3 of Article 118 and Articles 154 and 156 of the Criminal Code of Georgia - infliction of less serious harm to health, obstruction of journalistic activities and persecution. However, all six convicts were acquitted under Article 225 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which provides for participation in group violence.
ℹ️ Pride Week 2021 was held in Tbilisi with many incidents. On July 5, the actions of radical groups - opponents of the march for dignity - escalated into the persecution of journalists. More than 50 media representatives were injured, the offices of several LGBT organizations were destroyed. Local and international non-governmental organizations accuse the Georgian authorities and police of "deliberate inaction."

❗️Several MPs who left the ruling party last year and formed the Power of the People coalition are talking about a possible assassination of Saakashvili.

According to them, the politician's patrons still have plan B: get rid of him as a golden witness, blame the authorities for the death of the ex-president and, under this pretext, try to organize mass riots in the country.
“Firstly, these people will get rid of the golden witness, whose political value in prison is zero, and secondly, and most importantly, they will blame the authorities for the death of Saakashvili and, under this pretext, will try to organize mass riots in the country, the ultimate goal of which will be violent change of power and the opening of a second front in Georgia”.

📈 In 2022, Georgia received a record number of remittances: $4.4 billion, it is a historical maximum.

This statistics became known after the National Statistical Office calculated the data for December. In the last month of last year, again with a record high of $317 millions, Russia was in first place. In the top five countries: Italy - $43 million, USA - $34 million, Greece - $20 million and Israel - $19 million.
ℹ️ Russia became the record holder among countries based on the results of transfers for the whole of 2022. Transfers from there to Georgia amounted to more than $2 billion, which is 47.29% of the total amount for the year. Monthly chart in the picture.

🇬🇪🛫 The Civil Aviation Agency of Georgia has reported statistics for 2022.

Passenger traffic at Georgian airports has been restored by 85% of the pre-pandemic values ​​of 2019, and this is 78% more than in 2021.
📍 in total, 4,441,316 passengers were served (85% from 2019 and + 78% by 2021):
✔️Tbilisi: 85% by 2019 and +78% by 2021
✔️Batumi: 99% by 2019 and + 20% by 2021
✔️Kutaisi: 91% by 2019 and + 182% by 2021
📍 21,430 flights in total (88% by 2019 and +43% by 2021)
📍 41 airlines operate at Georgian airports in 60 destinations: in 2022, 9 new routes and 10 airlines were added in the country (Condor Airlines, Flyone Armenia, Varesh Airlines, Flyadeal, Armenia Airways, Pars Air, Southwind Airlines, Air Moldova, Thai Air Asia X and Fly Arna)
📍 in terms of the number of passengers carried in 2022, Wizz Air is the leader: 588226 people (13% of the aviatransfer market)
🇬🇪 Domestic airports:
Mestia +83% by 2021 and +8% by 2019
Ambrolauri +35% by 2021 and +33% by 2019
Natakhtari +148% by 2021 and +96% by 2019

⚡️Smog covered Tbilisi - air quality reaches critical levels.

This is evidenced by the results from the air quality portals. The situation is worst on the capital's Agmashenebeli and Rustaveli avenues, as well as in the Varketili region. The concentration of PM2.5 in Tbilisi is now 15.6 times higher than the WHO recommended average annual air quality value.
❗️Specialists advise people with heart and lung diseases to avoid physical activity.

🇬🇪💔🇺🇦 In the Ukrainian Dnipro, from the impact of a Russian missile on January 14, citizens of Georgia were killed.

According to Ukrainian media, they were members of the family of Zakaria Noniashvili, who has been on the front line since the first days of the war. Previously, they lived in Mariupol. Tatyana was during the invasion on the territory of Azovstal, where she spent more than 80 days under shelling, but in order to save her life, the woman had to surrender. At the end of 2022, she was released during an exchange of prisoners and the family moved to Dnipro. The bodies of Tatyana and grandmother have not yet been identified. Daughter, 19-year-old Liana, unfortunately, was found dead.
ℹ️ The death toll from Russian shelling in Dnipro has risen to 45, including 6 children. 79 people were injured (of which 16 were children).