House of Legends

Tag: Georgia Country

  • Day 577 of nonstop, nationwide protests in Georgia. 🇬🇪

    Day 577 of nonstop, nationwide protests in Georgia. 🇬🇪

    Large protesters crowd in the center of Tbilisi
    Large protesters crowd in the center of Tbilisi. %77 day of protests in Georgia country
    Protester waving Georgian flag
    Protester waving Georgian flag during 577 day of protests

    Even when some people said that resistance stuck or whatever, people keep protesting for more than 577 days in a row.

    Photos from https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:mkzewv6qowvw524zhmmty5nz/post/3mpburqwgq22u

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  • What if will create a room about Tbilisi and Georgia country?

    What if will create a room about Tbilisi and Georgia country?

    It is possible that this is single way to give my Conduit server some interesting use.

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  • What a crazy weather we had today

    It was not just a strong rain, but much more!

    PS: placing video link to peertube as is did not help.

    The video embed works only if post page opened.

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  • Censorship is boring

    Here quote from Civil.ge newsletter:

    Nodar Meladze, head of the news service at another opposition-leaning channel, TV Pirveli, said the Communications Commission (ComCom), Georgia’s state media regulator, “is attempting” to “prohibit” the channel from using the terms “prisoners of conscience,” “oligarch,” and “political prisoners” in news broadcasts. The case appears to be one of those in which the regulator targets opposition-leaning TV channels under the 2025 laws that granted the agency more powers to control the contents of the broadcasters.

    This is how censorship looks like it is pure form. “Georgian Dream” via control over state bodies like “ComCom”, local communications regulator, attempts to forbid words like “oligarch”. Meanwhile:

    1. oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili become billionaire in Russian Federation in 1990s.
    2. He is informal ruler of Georgia country who do not hold any state positions but have full control over parliament, government and courts.
    3. He performs this control being boss of pro-Kremlin1 terrorists gang2 masquerading as a political party “Georgian Dream”.
    4. This gang captured power via disinformation campaign in 2012.
    5. Spreading this information is not so safe in Georgia country as it was 5 or 6 years ago.

    But I do this anyway, because formally this is my duty as citizen of Georgia country. Article 78 of Georgian constitution demands from me to do anything possible to reach goal of European integration of Georgia country, and it means exactly EU and NATO integration. This goal matches my personal political preferences as well.

    1. The decisions “Georgian Dream” makes for a while are beneficial for Kremlin ↩︎
    2. Usage of military-grade chemicals like camite against peaceful protestors resembles act of terrorism done for sole purpose to impose atmosphere of fear and suppress protests. This is example of the state terrorism in my opinion. ↩︎
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  • Found a fun game about Marshrutka driver

    Here are the quote from author description of the Cow on Road game:

    My wife is Georgian and I have lived in Tbilisi for five years. We decided the driving experience here deserved its own video game, so we built one.

    You drive a marshrutka down an old Tbilisi street and dodge what the road gives you: Priuses drifting between lanes, Wolt couriers, potholes that rattle the whole bus, street dogs that run out to chase cars, pedestrians who cross wherever they want, and cows. Of course cows. There is honking and authentic Georgian yelling from the car windows.

    It is free, browser-based, no signup needed to play.

    There is a monthly leaderboard and the top driver wins a free course bundle from EasyGeorgian, the Georgian learning platform my wife and I run.

    Would love feedback, especially on what Tbilisi road hazard we forgot.

    Cow on road game illustration
    Cow on road game illustration

    Regarding feedback, it has been asked on Reddit here.

    I played this game a bit and enjoyed it a lot. It represents in a simple and a fun way the difficulties of work of marshrutka driver on the Tbilisi steets.

    Speaking of Marshrutka, this is a phenomenon of its own. They are usually (old?) Mercedes minibus with seats on each side, a narrow space in the middle and a overhead grab bar above each row of seats. They used often by passengers who ready to suffer by having a tough ride standing and holding by the overhead bar with one hand and pressing a seat with a leg or other hand to not fall.

    Random photo of famous Tbilisi marshrutka. It is yellow minibus on photo and the door is opened to take a passenger.
    Random photo of famous Tbilisi marshrutka. It is yellow minibus on photo and the door is opened to take a passenger.

    To me they become a social mirror of energetic, intense, zero-regulation freedom vibe of years when Bendukidze & other reformers from Saakashvili team made their unique reforms and projects. One of key aspects of this period was hyper-expressiveness of anything and vibe that anything possible. Including having a ride being stuck standing between plenty of random people busy their lives in a hurry. Meanwhile driver do few things at once, like drive, speaks by phone, screams at other drivers on the street, takes cash payments from passengers, gives them the change, and all this immersed often into loud music or radio air.

    Now marshrutkas are used primary as a way of inter-city transport, and it is a bit civilized a bit, but jokes are still here about Tbilisi Marshrutkas and their unique atmosphere.

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  • 26 May is Georgia ( საქართველო ) independence day

    Today, 26 May is Georgia country ( საქართველო – Saqart`velo ) independence day. I don’t feel too much festive about current developments in country, but hope it all will pass and country, people and language will prevail again like it happened already for over thousand years at least (I counting since times when Shota Rustaveli lived, near 1200 CE as I know).

    საქართველოს გაუმარჯოს!

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  • This story worth to read

    This story worth to read

    Sometimes we fill extra meaning anything, even appearing or disappearing of a large puddle on the street. The puddle I talking about is something I never seen in person, but I follow its fate reading the Dispatch column by at civil.ge

    All of three parts of this long story are worth reading.

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  • Reblog of 🦜 Civil Georgia:

    Reblog of 🦜 Civil Georgia:

    Reblog via 🦜 Civil Georgia

    GD Adopts Package Restricting Grants, Political Activity, Lobbying, Government Non-Recognition

    civil.ge/archives/723348

    The Georgian Dream-led disputed parliament has adopted in the final hearing a restrictive package that imposes additional curbs on receiving foreign funding, criminalizes “external lobbying,” restricts political activities, imposes limits on businesses,…

    The amendments to grants law resemble Soviet restrictions for any communication with foreigners (aka запрет на общение с иностранцами).

    The amendments restricting any political activity for business entities are so broad that even employee of any company would dare to say some opposition opinion online, it would be possible to fine the company, even GD denies that.

    The amendments declaring extremism forbids spreading any opinion like that: the current GD gang regime done the state capture in 2012 via Kremlin-spread disinformation, and therefore their rule is not legitimate. The extremism clause is so vague that even “activity aimed at creation of perception of Georgia authorities as illegitimate” and all that vague stuff, any discussion about politics will become soon illegal in Georgia.

    Simply speaking, people will be allowed only to discuss only something politically innocent such as cats, weather, flowers (except roses!) and their favorite food (but without mentioning skyrocketing food prices!).

    I doubt the GD would spend time and resources on total control of anyone speech or something like that, similar to Russian or Chinese censorship for internet right away – usually creating atmosphere of fear via precise imprisonment of few most active people works for some time. But later “Georgian Dream” terrorists gang can decide they don’t feel legitimate enough, and introduce even more legal bullshit whose sole purpose is to send more innocent people behind the bars.

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  • No to Russian propaganda channels!

    No to Russian propaganda channels!

    The weekly protest march of 28 February 2026 in Tbilisi went under slogan “No to Russian propaganda channels!”, referring widespread support of UK decision to impose sanctions against “Georgian Dream” party pet channels “Imedi” and “PosTV”.

    Both of these channels spread Kremlin propaganda against Ukraine. And when it going to internal Georgia events and affairs, they both spread Kremlin-smelling disinformation against EU & NATO, they lying for years and spread disinfo against NGO, cicvil society activists, and pro-EU & pro-NATO political parties and inidividual politicians.

    For while POSTV was even more radical version of Imedi in their policy of lies and disinformation, but now they are same.

    I personally faced this in end of Mikheil Saakashvili presidency when he gave one of best speeches at UN General Assembly. We went to greet Saakashvili in the airport on return, and there was a huge crowd there, supporting him.

    When we returned home, we seen in social media how people get angry (or some – laughing) at Imedi news report where anchor, without a single blink, lied that all these people (including me!) gathered to protest against Mikheil Saakashvili.

    Hope this small example will give you some taste of why Imedi propaganda smells like old putin’s socks. And why so many people support UK sanctions against Imedi and PosTV.

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  • Quite deep explanation of high grocery prices in Georgia country

    Quite deep explanation of high grocery prices in Georgia country

    Economy of No Tomorrow: What Keeps Food Prices Up in Georgia
    Georgia’s food prices have a dozen explanations. The actual problem is what happens when nobody trusts tomorrow.

    Economy of No Tomorrow: What Keeps Food Prices Up in Georgia
    Golden bread loaf
    Golden bread loaf which has been presented to Yanukovich and it found in the Mezhyhirya residence in 2014 after he fled from Ukraine to Russia

    The main problem is that with current fascist occupation administration leaded by Kremlin operative and fake billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili the tomorrow just can not come tomorrow and we can wake up again is the Soviet yesterday of Gulag, Gosplan, and unrealistic prices dictated by “revolutionary expediency”.

    But anyway, here in Georgia we can not trust to Today, as we already live in some hybrid dictatorship where you can wake up in the prison just because your competitor is a relative of State Security Service (today’s KGB) employee and you declared an enemy of the state for daring to critique of some banalities of dictatorship like dead courts or corruption and bureaucracy.

    It may take decades of peaceful life in democracy after ruzzian genocidal empire will collapse, before people would get used to trust to tomorrow.

    PS: I added to this post the photo of famous artifact of Yanukovich era, the golden bread loaf, as visualization of how expensive groceries are becoming in Georgia for many households.

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