Gov't to provide 13,859 families living near Russian-occupied territories with utilities vouchers
Instead of the vouchers, 200 GEL will be given to families who do not have access to natural gas. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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13,859 families living near Georgia’s Russian-occupied territories will receive 200 GEL vouchers to cover heating expenses, Georgia’s State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality stated today.
Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, Georgia’s State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality said that the ministry will work even harder for the families living in Georgia’s Russian-occupied territories.
We try to support our citizens who show us an example of heroism every day. Despite barriers and barbed-wire fences they don’t leave their homes… It is very important for us … [work be continued] with state agencies to respond to the needs of these people… This is our response to the ‘barbed-wire policy’ that still continues in the village of Gegutiantkari in Gori Municipality”, said Tsikhelashvili
Instead of the vouchers, 200 GEL will be given to families who do not have access to natural gas.
The Government of Georgia has been assisting the families living along the Administrative Boundary Line with Georgia’s breakaway region of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) since 2013.
The State Security Service of Georgia reported today that the occupation forces have erected illegal installations in the village of Gugutiantkari in Gori Municipality in the region of Shida Kartli, close to the Russia-occupied Tskhinvali region.
Georgian Foreign Ministry David Zalkaliani has stated that the humanitarian crisis in Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions [of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali] is one of the major challenges for the government, responding to the recent death of a woman in Tskhinvali due to the closed ‘checkpoint” with the breakaway region. He again raised the issue while meeting with the US Department of States Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center Lea Gabrielle earlier today.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell says that the death of 70-year-old Margo Martiashvili, who suffered a stroke in the Russian-occupied Akhalgori district and was unable to be transported to the Tbilisi-administered territory because of the closed “checkpoints” with Tskhinvali, is “tragic, and we are doing our best for the crossing points to be reopened.”
Families living near Georgia’s Russian-occupied territories will receive 200-lari vouchers to cover natural gas expenses, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, Georgia’s State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality said after today’s Government Meeting.
Georgian Minister of Reconciliation and Civil Equality Ketevan Tsikhelashvili has delivered a speech in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament yesterday, speaking ‘on behalf of the Georgian people living in the Russian-occupied Akhalgori district, where the humanitarian situation is particularly severe due to the closure of the crossing point with the rest of Georgia,’ in September 2019.
18 Georgian NGOs have urged EU, UN, OSCE top officials and heads of international organisations to increase pressure on Russia, which effectively controls the two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, to make it open crossing points between its controlled Akhalgori district and the rest of Georgia, to cease arbitrary detention of people and to allow international monitoring missions ‘unimpeded access’ to the occupied territories.
A Georgian citizen has been kidnapped by Russian troops in Gori Municipality, near the village of Adzvi, in central Georgia.
The de facto authorities of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region has accused Tbilisi of sparking provocations and the ‘continued occupation of its territories,’ urging the international community to ‘duly assess Georgia’s illegal activities.’