# data[].attributes.body
Are we a talented nation in sports? The so-called sports nation? Georgians often argue about this topic.

Afghanistan, Cyprus, Ghana, Iraq, Kuwait, Moldova, Iceland, Montenegro, Namibia, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Bosnia, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Israel, Peru, Chile - all of these nations together have only 5 Olympic champions, Kutaisi has 6.

How can someone say we are not a sports nation? If Russia completely conquers us and leaves Kutaisi alone, it will still be a very sporting nation.

If the argument of the Olympic champions is not enough, I will tell you that from 1962 to 1991, the world champions in women's chess were Georgians. For almost 30 years, tiny Georgia has dominated this vast land. Okay, forget chess. To be the best in the world for 30 years in a row in the card game of Joker it’ll still be madness.

For 30 years, Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze have turned the World Chess Championship into a competition among girlfriends.

In short, let's agree that we are a sports country!

The wars and disasters of the 90s dealt a great blow to Georgian sports. Many of the once successful sports have virtually disappeared. For example, cycling. If you wanted to have a bicycle back then, you would literally have to invent it by yourself.

Soon it will be 40 years since Dinamo Tbilisi defeated Carl Zeiss in the European Cup Winners' Cup final. This day is the most impressive and memorable in the history of Georgian football. We have not been so happy for 40 years. The only thing that comforts me is that since then neither Carl Zeiss has done anything. We at least won the cup and they are still reminding themselves of being finalists.

Okay, we are talented, but we cannot use our abilities to the fullest, that is also a fact. How should we make the most of our resources?

There is a lot to do. First of all, if we want to make progress, sports news should not be found on the page of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Here are 5 titles from the recent past:

1) Shooting in a rugby union

2) MIA arrested the President of the Wrestling Federation on violence charges

3) Fight near the Football Federation - Activists were physically assaulted by veteran players

4) Conflicting sides threw eggs and bottles to each other at the Arm Wrestling Federation

5) The former mayor of Marneuli, accused of inhuman treatment, became the vice-president of the Athleticism Federation

In short, in the first place, sport must be freed from the influence of politicians. The government must no longer humiliate its people in all federations and cultivate them as it’s muscles on election day against the opposition. Here, we really need to separate sport and politics.

Despite all the hardships Georgian sport faces, Georgian supporters live with hope. The hope for a brighter future, which is fed by magnificent talents like Kvicha Kvaratskhelia who at the age of 20 managed to make thousands of Georgians happy, maybe for a fleeting moments, but still happy to the sky when he scored a perfect goal against much stronger team of much more successful country of Spain.

# data[].attributes.headline
Protest Season Coming - Hooliganism & Police Disobedience Sanctions Being Tightened

# data[].attributes.subject
Protest Season Coming - Hooliganism & Police Disobedience Sanctions Being Tightened

# data[].attributes.body
The parliamentary majority of the Georgian Dream plans to tighten sanctions for petty hooliganism and disobedience to the demands of the police. Activists link the possible changes to the upcoming demonstrations and claim that tightening of sanctions is aimed to suppress the desire to protest.

According to human rights organizations, this move, along with restrictions on freedom of expression, will lead to self-censorship in society. However, some organizations once again point to the need for real reform of the Code of Administrative Offenses and say that even the existing form of the Code is already being used to restrict the right to expression.

A bill was introduced in the Parliament of Georgia on April 26, which tightens the administrative responsibility for petty hooliganism and disobedience or insult to the police.

One of the non-governmental organizations, the Democracy Index - Georgia, issued a statement on April 26 calling on parliament not to accept the changes, justifying its call as follows:

"Against the background of the current political process and the protests announced in the future, the tightening of sanctions for petty hooliganism and disobedience to the lawful request of a law enforcement official will help to establish self-censorship in the country."

According to the Democracy Index, in the face of numerous cases of unjustified police use of force against protesters, "citizens' fear of a severe sanction substantially increases their motivation to refrain from protesting or even protesting within the constitution."

Tamar Kakabadze participated in a protest rally against MP Erekle Kukhianidze in Tbilisi City Assembly in December 2019. Kukhianidze insulted dr. Vazha Gaprindashvili, who was detained in occupied Tskhinvali, on Facebook [then he apologized], which was followed by a demonstration.

"I was Live on Facebook and I was silent at that rally. At one point I didn’t feel good and sat on the ground. Then I heard the voice of the police chief, calling to arrest me and they arrested me. Neither the police officer detaining me said I was resisting, there was no footage of my obscene expression, but the judge simply decided to confirm the position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and decided to fine me 1,000 GEL. These two articles are very common, even if you look at the detention protocols, everyone writes the same article", Kakabadze recalls the arrest episode.

Tamar Kakabadze, currently an activist of Elene Khoshtaria's movement "Droa", recalls another such case: "Nodar Rukhadze, who was standing alone at the parliament with a megaphone in his hand and both of these articles were used against him as well."

Nodar Rukhadze is an activist of the "Shame Movement", who was arrested during a rally in front of the Parliament. As can be seen in the footage taken by the "Shame Movement", Rukhadze was standing alone at one of the gates of the parliament and chanting against the government.

"Shameful slaves... [PM Irakli] Garibashvili, you do not deserve to stand there now and respect the memory of the people who sacrificed themselves for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia," he chanted.

Shortly afterwards, one of the high-ranking officials of the Tbilisi police came to him and policemen put him in a car and arrested. Rukhadze was fined 2000 Laris by the court on the same day.

Political activist Giorgi Mumladze, who has been protesting against the election results in tents outside the parliament for months, also criticizes the planned changes:

"It is directly aimed at minimizing the protest and sowing fear among the activists as much as possible. Instead of reducing the sanctions on these articles, tightening these measures is a step backwards," he said. Mumladze has been arrested at least five times since January 2021.

Nona Kurdovanidze, Director of the Legal Aid Program of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), says that the Code of Administrative Offenses in Georgia has many shortcomings and systemic problems, the correction of which is not justified by separate changes.

"Over the years, this code has seen a number of changes, but essentially nothing has changed that would improve the standards," Kurdovanidze said.

In her opinion the main problem is that police officers often unjustifiably detain individuals in an administrative manner and then the case is not heard in court to the proper standard.

"In particular, the evidence is almost never properly investigated and the court only shares the explanations of the police," the lawyer said.

"The aggravation of sanctions in these conditions causes uncertainty, because it is clear what the motivation is, why these changes are justified. "We have not heard a logical explanation for this so far, and that it will have any consequences in terms of reducing violations is not based on any real calculations," she stated.

In the explanation card uploaded on the Parliament website, which accompanies the draft bill, the author, MP from ruling Georgian Dream, Anri Okhanashvili, justifies the initiation of changes:

"It is clear from the statistics that the current penalty size for committing administrative offenses under Articles 166 and 173 of the Administrative Code does not ensure the prevention of these offenses. These violate public order and governance."

Sanctions on both articles have increased as a result of the 2018 changes, and even then the MIA's argument was the same - that the sanction is so small, it does not prevent people from committing this act anymore." Practice shows that increasing sanctions doesn’t lead to a reduction in these types of violations.

# data[].attributes.headline
Namokhvani Deadlock - Is there a solution?

# data[].attributes.subject
Namokhvani Deadlock - Is there a solution?

# data[].attributes.body
Rioni Valley lives in two realities. 175 days in tents and ongoing construction work in Rioni Valley; There are divided opinions and fears around the largest project of recent decades costing about 800 million.

The situation is extremely tense and it is a fact that the government should do everything possible to ensure that the opinion divided on purpose or inadvertently does not harm the national and strategic interests of the country. It is not difficult to guess who is benefiting from the controversy - of course, Russia.

Land - This is the red line and the N1 issue, which is why people have been living in tents on Rioni banks for 175 days. Meanwhile, the construction process doesn’t stop in a few meters. The protest continues and the work continues as well.

"Practically the whole valley is transferred to the ownership of a foreign company. This is the N1 issue of our protest. For us, this is a red line, which in no case can be sorted and resolved in the conditions of this communication. We consider it inadmissible to transfer the valley in private ownership to someone forever. Their ethnic origin doesn’t matter…" - Varlam Goletiani, guardian of the Rioni valley and organizer of continuous protests.

In general, most citizens have their position on the construction of hydropower plants, but like in many other important issues, people see developments in two colors - black and white. But the issue is complex - to put the topic of land aside for a moment, opponents of the plant have other questions - whether the energy generated by the plant will be cheaper than imported electricity and whether the HPP will be able to contribute to the country's energy independence.

"This HPP will not be ours. It's owned by someone else, a foreign company. The same goes for the tariff, how the owner manages this electricity, it is his prerogative. As stated in the contract, after 15 years he can dispose of this energy as he wishes because it is his property. "It won’t bring independence to the country's energy," Goletiani said.

People living in tents in the village of Gumati have questions about the impact of floodwaters on the environment in the valley or how sustainable a dam built in a seismic zone will be.

"There are no fundamental conclusions that ensure the safety of the HPP. Rioni valley is a seismically active zone, there are landslide areas, there is a micro-zone of Tvishi [Georgian wine variety], which will be damaged and no one has answers for this." - Goletiani stated.

These questions were asked months ago, but the exact explanation has not been heard. The silence intensifies fears. In addition, if you are told that your favorite city, Kutaisi, will be washed away by a 30-meter wave, of course, it is difficult to share any argument for the construction of the HPP.

The company "Enka" confirms that a project of this scale will have an impact, both from an environmental and social point of view, however, they claim that this impact is minimized. The project manager of the HPP says that the company has all the necessary documents to prove it, however, for more persuasion, they have included additional international experts in the process - the Swiss company "Stuk" and the international company "Ramon", in addition to construction and engineering, are studying the issues of social and environmental kind on the ground.

Reputable companies and experts participating in the project are important, but it is interesting to see what contribution the construction of this HPP will make to the country's energy independence and how acceptable the electricity tariff stipulated in the contract is. Merab Lominadze, project manager of Namokhvanhi HPP, says that the electricity generated here will be much cheaper for our country than imported electricity.

"The Central Dispatch of Georgia decides on the export of electricity or access to the local market. That means, the Georgian government decides whether or not to export this or that type of electricity. This trade is not free, because it depends on the central dispatcher, who can restrict and not allow the export of electricity, and such cases are frequent. I will be happy if Georgia becomes an exporter of electricity. I will be happy if money enters the country in exchange for electricity and not in exchange for the slave labor that our fellow citizens do in different countries,” said the project director, Lominadze.

Why did the state transfer the lands to the private company?

Lominadze says the company handed over a total of 35 million Laris to locals to compensate for land they did not even have officially registered ownership of. According to him, this is why the state handed over these lands to the company at a symbolic price on the condition that it would build a dam of international standards. If the company fails to fulfill this promise properly, it will lose ownership of lands.

Then what caused the protest?

According to Varlam Goletiani, it is important to have a meeting and dialogue, which the company has never been able to provide:

"They do not want us to have a dialogue in an equal environment."

There was an attempt at dialogue, albeit belatedly. The Minister of Economy, Natia Turnava, arrived on the spot, but left without answering protesters’ questions. Locals are demanding Turnava to resign and meet with the PM Irakli Garibashvili. According to them, the main addressee of the questions is now not the company, but the government.

The prime minister is not going to Rioni Valley, but activists are going to the prime minister with protests. They announced a large-scale demonstration in the capital on May 23.