Georgia
Sunday 24 January 2021
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"Achieving sustainable development goals could become one of the elements in the bilateral dialogue between Moscow and Washington, but it is not. Because this dialogue is generally far from being in the best state right now, and not because of Moscow."
The major break in U.S.-Russia relations came in 2014 with Russia’s Crimea annexation, followed by its war in Ukraine and U.S. election interference. -
“We cannot rule that (a ‘provocation’ by Western intelligence services) out.”
There is no evidence that Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, now in a coma, was poisoned by Western countries that are condemning the Kremlin. -
"Let's proceed from the fact that we are not engaged in the manufacture of similar kinds of chemical substances on our territory. As far as there is information, such weapons, such chemical toxic substances are available on the territory of Georgia from the United States, in the laboratory, and in the United States of America."
The U.S. is destroying its stockpile of chemical weapons while Russia reportedly stockpiled the nerve agent for a decade. Georgia does not produce it. -
“Facebook has not mentioned the Georgian Dream [party] even once. It has never mentioned a political actor or a political party save the United National Movement.”
Facebook recently took down accounts linked to the opposition UNM. But last year, it also removed accounts associated with the ruling Georgian Dream party for improper activity. -
“… [W]hat relation do the closest relatives of R.A. Kadyrov have to the imputed violations? … I am not going to comment on these trumped-up charges. Moreover, evidence and arguments are traditionally lacking.”
Evidence supporting alleged human rights violations under Chechen Republic ruler Ramzan Kadyrov’s is abundant. -
In 2014, Russia invaded the Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and, after a “referendum,” brought it into the Russian Federation. Moreover, Russia maintains effective control over separatist territories in former Soviet states without annexing them.
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“The rights of sexual minorities are very well protected in our country ... If some deviations happen, it means that the law is not observed and the rights of some people are violated. However, it does not mean that the minority must infringe on the rights of the majority.”
LGBT+ individuals in Georgia often experience abuse, intolerance, and discrimination, a United Nations report found. In a July 2019 poll by the National Democratic Institute, only 27 percent of Georgians agreed that protecting their rights is important. -
News Front cherry-picked results from a U.S. survey to falsely turn some Americans’ lack of interest in a coronavirus vaccine into outright opposition.
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“It has been transpiring that the current pandemic – as I have been told and also, I watched some programs I was sent via WhatsApp yesterday – is, after all, a bluff. If this pandemic turns out to be a bluff, what would you say then? If it becomes established that this pandemic is a trick, and the world admits that it is a bluff, will that not prove the truth of what that bishop said?”
With nearly 4.5 million cases and more than 300,000 deaths worldwide, the coronavirus is neither a “bluff” nor a “trick.” Containment efforts have devastated the global economy and may extend for many months. -
"As far as claims by the European External Action Service are concerned, the claims that our countries have been allegedly spreading disinformation about everything that is happening in relation to the coronavirus, it would be inappropriate even to make comments, because not a single fact that might back up such allegations has been presented to us."
In truth there is not ‘a single fact,’ but many facts, supporting the accusations that Russia has promoted disinformation regarding COVID-19. -
“The first clinical trial on remdesivir, an experimental medication by the company Gilead Sciences, which has been seen as one of the promising and most successful medications in treating coronavirus, proved a failure.”
The News Front Georgia report falsely claimed a remdesivir trial in China was the first of its kind and the results were final. The story ignored that the trial was terminated and its findings disputed. A new U.S. study now shows promise for the drug. -
“The next important object is the Lugar Laboratory, also known as the Georgian Research Center in Tbilisi, which is functioning at the disposal of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia and is the investment project of the USA aimed at creating a strategic military facility. The laboratory is studying especially dangerous infectious diseases, but it hides the true motives of its research, which may indicate the possibility of developing biological weapons.”
Most scientists believe the virus causing COVID-19 originated naturally, not in a laboratory. Conspiracies about U.S.-funded research labs making bioweapons are a staple of Russian disinformation.