Tbilisi now 🇬🇪🇪🇺

Georgia has adopted the law on “foreign agents” despite months of protests and warnings from Brussels

Analysts said that Georgia could slide into the Belarusian-style repression deployed after Lukashenko’s fraudulent victory in 2020

with Ben Hall

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Georgia has become a test for the EU: it must send a clear message to the ruling party and suspend EU candidacy if the law is passed

But it also owes it to the Georgians and should do all it can to maintain links with the civil society and the opposition

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Tomorrow, the Georgian parliament will “definitely adopt” the “foreign agents' law, which is “desired by the majority of the population', Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Kobakhidze (who can apparently see into the future!) has said, while protests against it continue as he speaks

How is Russia continuing to source the parts it needs to keep its airliners flying? The country, which is home to huge brands like Sukhoi, is reliant on a network of tiny suppliers shipping parts in suitcases to keep passengers in the air. (1/3)

on.ft.com/4bbumrO

Anastasia Stognei writes a dispatch on the situation in Georgia for FT with focus on Ivanishvili. Mainly descriptive. Good primer for those, who know little about Georgia and what has been happening there since 2012. Aslan Abashidze's fate awaits Ivanishvili. ft.com/content/07e24d…

A US crackdown on banks financing trade in goods for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – and the fear of secondary sanctions – has made it much more difficult to move money in and out of Russia.

Latest with ⁦Chris Cook⁩ ⁦Anastasia Stognei⁩ ft.com/content/b4a556…

“I feel no pain. The head, the eye and the body will heal. The fight against the Putinists must continue,” Georgia's main opposition party leader Levan Khabeishvili said after riot police beat him up during the ongoing fight over the country's EU future

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If Putin's historical hallucinations were not enough to completely bore you, Tucker Carlson has another interview for you. Dugin is also hallucinating, but in contrast to Putin he is completely irrelevant. Waste of time.

EU and US banks operating in Russia paid nearly $1 billion in taxes to the Russian government in 2023, with Austria’s Raiffeisen the top contributor. How many thousands of Ukrainians were killed or maimed with this revenue? There is a deep unseriousness with European politicians…

The largest western banks in Russia paid the Kremlin more than €800mn in taxes last year, a fourfold increase on prewar levels, despite promises to minimise their exposure after the invasion of Ukraine, ⁦Euan Healy⁩ and ⁦Anastasia Stognei⁩ report on.ft.com/3UBv6k3

A Russian court ordered to seize $439.5mn of JPMorgan's funds after a lawsuit from VTB who seeks to “recover losses” as JPM had frozen VTB’s funds in a correspondent account

Possible outcome: VTB = $0, JPM = minus $439.5

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Half of Sberbank's – Russia's top lender – record dividends will flow to the state coffers: Rbs350bn or around 1% of the total budget revenues expected in 2024

Another Rbs130bn will go to the foreign shareholders who cannot withdraw it from Russia

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“If the law is adopted, it will mean a total Belarusization of Georgia: the destruction of the NGO sector, an exodus of young people and skilled workers,” said Vano Chkhikvadze, EU integration program manager Civil Society Foundation

My today's dispatch from Tbilisi

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Viktor Medvedchuk is at it again.

European officials have accused the Ukrainian “Prince of Darkness” & Putin pal of bribing EU lawmakers as part of a Russian influence operation ahead of bloc elections in June.
w/ alicemhancock Henry Foy Anastasia Stognei
on.ft.com/3xd75Xs

Ukrainian drones effect: Russian weekly gasoline production is down sharply, 14.3% below last year.

Chart shows 1,000 tons per week, source: MMI (Telegram).
Data source: Rosstat. rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediab…

When you forgot how to walk but still gonna vote

Russia will produce fewer oil products due to 'refinery repairs', Pavel Sorokin, the deputy energy minister, admitted today

This is a direct consequence of the second wave of drone attacks on Russia's oil refinery infrastructure, most of which is located in its European part

Ukraine has stepped up drone strikes on oil refineries deep inside Russia, in what officials depict as an intensifying effort to hit the country’s economy.

⁦Christopher Miller⁩ and ⁦Anastasia Stognei⁩ have the latest: ft.com/content/4bd2b7…