Page 10 - GEORptJun22

the chairman of the ruling party replied: "I bear my political responsibility and cannot go into these details."
The accusations made by Kobakhidze were preceded by a May 6 statement by PR company Cision, hired by the Ivanishvili family, about Ivanishvili's new dispute with Credit Suisse, as well as serious failure and political pressure from a Credit Suisse trustee. Cision's press release said the Green Vals Trust, when asked by Ivanishvili to pay him the amount, "made unreasonable demands for information and cited the 'geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe' as the reason for the delay".
Cision's statement emphasised that the Ivanishvili family has nothing to do with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is not subject to any sanctions. They also explained that Ivanishvili has dual citizenship in Georgia and France and that he “can in no way be included in the list of sanctioned organisations and individuals”. The company said that Ivanishvili was planning a "series of meetings" with international media in order to "dispel the myths associated with the untarnished image of the Swiss banking and judicial system".
2.6 Georgian government relaxes mask rules
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at Monday's government meeting that from 2 May the mandatory rule of wearing a mask will be relaxed throughout the country. In particular, according to Irakli Garibashvili, from now on the use of masks will be mandatory only in medical institutions and public transport.
According to the prime minister, the decision was made as a result of close consultations with Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili and health experts. According to Garibashvili, this decision was due to the "very stable picture" of the epidemiological situation. Neighbouring Azerbaijan issued a similar decision, dropping mandatory mask-wearing even for public transport.
As of May 2, 1,655,221 cases of COVID-19 infection have been confirmed in Georgia. To date, 51 new cases of the virus have been identified. 95 people recovered, and 1 died. To date, 1,091 active cases of infection have been registered in the country.
2.7 Kyiv accuses South Caucasian countries of helping Russia to evade sanctions
The intelligence service of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has accused the South Caucasian countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia of negotiating with Moscow on the re-export of Russian products to international markets. “The supply [of Russian products] is planned under the guise of Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani products and then exported to third countries,” the intelligence service of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry reported on May 1. According to the agency, more than 200 companies have already been established in the countries of the South Caucasus.
The intelligence service also noted that Armenia creates favourable conditions for doing business with Russian companies, especially in the field of internet technologies (IT). “Since the beginning of Russia’s large-scale aggression
10 GEORGIA Country Report June 2022 www.intellinews.com