Month: April 2025

The National Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage has confirmed the repeated water intrusion into the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta since the beginning of spring.

It is an 11th century temple that is considered one of the main shrines in Georgia and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Moisture inside the temple can be critical, threatening the preservation of the unique frescoes.

It was first reported on March 22 that water was getting inside the temple.

The Agency for Protection of Cultural Heritage explains that the cracks need to be sealed with a special solution, which requires several days of dry weather. Due to deteriorating meteorological conditions, it is not possible to complete the work yet.

Specialists assure that the problem will be completely eliminated as soon as the rains end. They assure that the Svetitskhoveli frescoes are not damaged.

Another historic Orthodox complex in Georgia, Gelati, has been struggling with excess moisture in the main temple for years. “Greenhouse effect” due to improper restoration in different years led to the destruction of some of the unique frescoes and mosaics. There the matter came to a scandal, after which the restoration of the complex was taken out of the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and transferred to the Patriarchate.

Swiss airline Edelweiss Air, a member of the Lufthansa Group, has started operating regular flights Zurich-Tbilisi-Zurich.

The flights will be operated twice a week, on Tuesdays and Sundays.

The first flight has already carried 151 passengers.

The Georgian Ministry of Economy said it expects an increase in tourists from Switzerland thanks to direct flights.

According to the Tourism Administration, only 6,895 Swiss citizens visited Georgia in the whole of last year. The record was pre-pandemic 2019 with 9,879 visits.

The Russian airlines iFly and Nordstar, which are under EU sanctions, have received permission to perform flights to Sukhumi from Moscow and Krasnoyarsk. This follows from the documents of Rosaviatsia.

iFly was allowed to perform between Moscow and Sukhumi 14 flights a week, Nordstar – 7 times a week. Between Krasnoyarsk and Sukhumi Nordstar has agreed flights with a frequency of three times a week.

Sukhumi airport has not functioned since the 90s, flights stopped after the outbreak of war in Abkhazia. The facility was repaired with Russian participation, and a test flight was performed on February 7.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) does not recognize the Sukhumi airport as an international airport – it considers Abkhazia an integral part of Georgia. In 2006 ICAO canceled its code and excluded it from its documents.

The Civil Aviation Agency of Georgia stated that any foreign airline that decided to fly to Sukhumi would violate international norms.

Works on restoration of passenger railway communication between Baku and Tbilisi continue, but the exact date of resumption of flights has not been determined yet. This was reported to BPN agency by the Georgian Railway.

“The parties are working intensively and a specific date for the restoration of traffic will be announced later,” the representative of Georgian Railway said.

Direct railroad communication between Georgia and Azerbaijan has been interrupted for more than five years. Since the beginning of the pandemic it was possible to get from one country to another only by air. Azerbaijan has repeatedly extended the quarantine regime, the last time – until June 1, 2025.

In February, before the next extension of quarantine restrictions, the Ministry of Economy of Georgia confirmed that trains between Baku and Tbilisi would resume service from May 1. However, the timing is now once again uncertain.

This week Azerbaijani media published photos of an Azerbaijani Railways high-speed train at the Tbilisi train station. This raised expectations of the soon launch of passenger flights, but in Azerbaijani Railways clarified: the train is not intended for passenger transportation and is used exclusively for technical diagnostics of railway tracks – in order to ensure traffic safety.

Georgia has reduced the period of stay in the country for Ukrainian citizens from three years to one year. Corresponding amendments were made to a government decree on April 2.

Before the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians could stay in Georgia for one year, but on February 24, 2023, the government increased the period of visa-free stay to two years, and on April 23, 2024 – to three years.

The new decision of the Georgian government states that Ukrainian citizens who entered and stayed in Georgia until February 24, 2025, will have their right to stay extended until February 24, 2026.

After elections in October 2024, the Georgian Dream party won the majority of seats in the Georgian parliament, and in December, the members of the panel with a majority of Georgian Dream deputies elected a single candidate, Mikhail Kavelashvili, as the country’s president. He represents the Power of the People party, allied to the Georgian Dream, which advocates populist anti-Western positions.

The founder of Georgian Dream is the pro-Russian politician Bidzina Ivanishvili. The United States, Ukraine and the Baltic states have imposed sanctions against him.

An earthquake with magnitude 3.6 has occurred in Georgia.

As Oxu.Az reports, this was reported by the National Seismic Monitoring Center of the country. According to its data, the epicenter was located 12 km south-west of the capital Tbilisi. The source lay at a depth of 24 km. There was no information about casualties or destruction.

We shall remind you that a month ago, in early March, earthquakes were also recorded in Georgia – twice in a day. Also, the earthquake with magnitude 5.1 occurred near the Georgian-Armenian border.