Afgan Mukhtarli was freed after nearly three years in prison. His rendering from Tbilisi drew attention to the clout that the authoritarian Azerbaijani government wielded in neighboring Georgia.
At its first session, the newly elected assembly introduced an entirely new leadership team, but the fealty to President Ilham Aliyev was as strong as ever.
A long-awaited deal should make the country’s electoral system more representative of the popular will, and bring an end to the protests and instability that have seized Georgia since last summer.
The effort is part of a long-standing desire to reverse the country’s population decline. But to many, it sounded like the government was blaming women for infertility.
The criticism from Abkhazia is rare, given its deep dependence on Russia. But a Russian media report about the “poisoning” of an opposition politician appears to have triggered Sukhumi.
On his visit to Georgia, the Armenian prime minister called on the two countries to move beyond their long-running frenemy relations and conflicting geopolitical orientations.
Last year the candidate, Aslan Bzhania, claimed to have been poisoned by the then-president. Now he has fallen seriously ill again and his campaign says the vote can't go ahead without him.