» Timeline:  2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006

January 5 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukrainian President-elect Victor Yushchenko signed in the western Ukrainian ski resort of Tisovets a joint declaration reiterating their two nation’s European aspirations and further democratic development.

January 5 - Georgian State Minister in charge of Euro-Atlantic integration issues Giorgi Baramidze, who previously held the Defense Minister’s position, convened a press conference and dismissed current Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili’s statements that some defense officials “pushed the army into a worse situation than it was before the revolution.”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8744

January 12 – Sergey Bagapsh won repeat presidential elections in breakaway Abkhazia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8755

January 15 - A large number of the Georgian movies was destroyed after the storehouse of the Georgian Film Studio burned down in the capital Tbilisi.

January 17 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili downplayed recommendations of the draft resolution of the Council of Europe on honoring of obligations and commitments by Georgia, which leveled strong criticisms against Saakashvili administration stating “the post-revolutionary situation should not become an alibi for hasty decisions and neglect for democratic and human rights standards.”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8822

January 21 - Units of the Georgian Internal Troops were pulled out from north-western mountainous Pankisi gorge after the security officials announced that there was no need for increased security measures in the gorge any more. Checkpoints of the Interior Troops were also removed from the gorge.

January 21 - Georgian authorities announced their intention to reinvestigate murder case of Freddy Woodruff, an officer of the political department of the US Embassy in Tbilisi, who was assassinated in Georgia more than ten years ago.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8864

January 25 - A Law on tax and financial amnesty was enforced starting from January 25. The law, which was approved by the Georgian Parliament on December 24, 2004, envisages amnesty for those persons who evaded paying taxes before January 1, 2004, as well as legalization of undeclared property and finances. Analysts criticized the law as ineffective.

January 25 - U.S. Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton nominated Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko for the Nobel Peace Prize.

January 26 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili presented a vision for resolving the South Ossetian conflict at the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe session in Strasbourg.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8891

January 31 - a Tbilisi court found excommunicated orthodox priest Basil Mkalavishvili guilty of masterminding and carrying out organized violence against Jehovah's Witnesses and Baptist-Evangelists and burning their religious literature and sentenced him to 6 years of imprisonment.

February

February 1 - The Georgian Defense Ministry started recruitment of servicemen for participation in a new U.S. military assistance program – Sustainment and Stability Operations Program (SSOP), which is designed to focus on training Georgian soldiers for coalition support. For the fiscal year 2005, the U.S. Government allocated USD60.5 million for the SSOP.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8941

February 2 – Car bomb explosion outside the police station in the town of Gori killed three policemen and injured dozen of civilians. Georgian officials, who described incident as a terrorist act, announced that a large amount of plastic explosive mixed with TNT, which was detonated in a car, was triggered by remote control.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8944

February 3 – Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili announced early in the morning shocking news that Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania died. “It was a misfortune. We can say that it was gas poisoning [from the faulty heater],” Vano Merabishvili said. Officials ruled out any foul play and claimed that the death of the Prime Minister was a tragic accident caused by carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8955
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=8996
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9010

February 8 - President Saakashvili nominated Finance Minister Zurab Nogaideli as the new Prime Minister of Georgia. Initially, Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze criticized the President’s choice, but later she said that she would support new nomination.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9020

February 10 – President Saakashvili made his first-ever state of the nation address to the Parliament.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9038

February 10 – Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said that she does not deem it necessary to set a special parliamentary investigative commission to probe into the official version of the circumstances behind late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania’s death, as was demanded by the New Rights opposition faction at the parliamentary session.

February 11 – President Saakashvili nominated new cabinet.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9048

February 11 – Talks over the terms of withdrawal of the Russia’s military bases from Georgia ended without any results in Tbilisi.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9052

February 11 – A grenade, thrown by an unknown person into the yard of a house in Tbilisi where U.S. diplomat lives, exploded causing no casualties. The identity of the U.S. citizen, who works at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, was not disclosed, as the U.S. Embassy refrained from making any comments.

February 12 – Sergey Bagapsh was inaugurated as President of unrecognized Abkhaz Republic.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9067

February 16 – President Saakashvili appointed Irakli Alasania, chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz government-in-exile, as his Special Envoy for the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict resolution issues.

February 17 - the Georgian Parliament approved, with a 175 to 24 vote, a new cabinet, chaired by ex-Finance Minister Zurab Nogaideli.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9107

February 18 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visits Georgia. His refused to lay a wreath at the memorial of Georgia's fallen soldiers in Tbilisi triggered war of words between Tbilisi and Moscow ahead of the visit.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9115

February 18 - President Saakashvili dismissed Commander of the General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces Vakhtang Kapanadze following the request of Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili.

February 23 - The Parliament approved Kote Kublashvili as the new Chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia for a 10-year term.

February 26 - The Georgian Parliament approved a governmental proposal to increase the term of compulsory military service from the current 12 to 18 months, less than four months after the Parliamentarians supported a reduction of the term of service.

February 28 - Newly appointed Prime Minister of breakaway Abkhazia Alexander Ankvab survived in an assassination attempt, when a group of unknown gunmen opened fire to the Prime Minister’s convoy outside the capital Sokhumi. Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said that criminal gangs were behind this attack.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9215
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9224

March

March 1 - Selling of tobacco products at outdoor markets was banned in the capital Tbilisi.

March 1 - Georgia sent 573 servicemen to Iraq as a part of the coalition forces stationed there. As a result, the number of Georgian troops in Iraq increased up to 900; hence Georgia has become one of the most significant contributors to the coalition force in terms of a country's per capita troop deployment.

March 2 – President Saakashvili paid a blitz visit to Moldova. During the visit Saakashvili and his Moldovan counterpart Vladimir Voronin signed two joint declarations – one about the supremacy of democratic values and another regarding the secessionist conflicts.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9241

March 2 – The European Commission (EC) recommended to significantly intensify relations with Georgia through the development of an Action Plan under the EU’s Neighborhood Policy (ENP).
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9238

March 2 – MP from the ruling National Movement party Vasil Maglaperidze was appointed as the Governor of Mtskheta-Mtianeti region in central Georgia, replacing Goga Khachidze. The latter was appointed as the Governor of Samtskhe-Javakheti, a region in south-western part of Georgia, which is pre-dominantly populated by ethnic Armenians.

March 2 – Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer signed an agreement in Brussels, envisaging use of Georgia’s air space, road and rail infrastructure for transit purposes by NATO to send supplies necessary for the sustainment of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

March 3 – Following a visit to Moldova, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili left for Italy on an official visit,

March 3 – Chief of the news program Nata Imedaishvili and three other journalists of the state-owned television in Ajdara Autonomous Republic quitted the company, citing pressure from the television’s leadership and the authorities of the Autonomous Republic.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9252

March 4 – Working groups were set up in the Georgian government in order to coordinate implementation of those reforms, which are outlined by Georgia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO.

March 8 – The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on Future of Democracy in the Black Sea Area. Hearing involved discussions over the U.S. policy towards the region, Russia’s role, conflict resolution issues, democracy development.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9295

March 10 – U.S. Senior Advisor for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy Ambassador Steven Mann said that “core” of U.S. Caspian energy policy is "anti-monopoly" and called on the Georgian government for “great caution” while considering plans over selling the country’s trunk gas pipelines to the Russian energy giant Gazprom.

March 10 – The Georgian Parliament approved, with a 158 to 0 vote, a resolution instructing the executive government to take measures against the Russian military bases currently stationed in Georgia if an agreement over a “reasonable” timeframe for their withdrawal is not reached with Russia before May 15, 2005.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9310

March 11 - Russia’s lower house of Parliament – State Duma rejected the draft law envisaging simplification of procedures of joining the Russian Federation for those breakaway regions on the former Soviet space, which aspire membership in the Russian Federation. Only 91 Russian parliamentarians supported the document, proposed by Rodina faction, while 300 votes were necessary to endorse it.

March 13 - Hundreds of local residents in Akhalkalaki, a town in Georgia’s south-western region of Samtskhe-Javakheti which is predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians, rallied in protest of the withdrawal of the Russian military base stationed in this town.

March 13 - Aleksandre Sukhitashvili, the Chief of Police of the Shida Kartli region, which borders breakaway South Ossetia, and his deputies, as well as the chiefs of the police departments of all the districts located in the Shida Kartli region, were sacked, after the local police officials were accused of patronizing smuggling in the region.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9340

March 14 - Police dispersed several hundred would-be students who have been protesting against new rules of enrolment in the university outside of the Georgian Parliament building, in downtown Tbilisi, for the past couple of weeks. Several protesters were reportedly slightly injured.

March 16 – Georgian officials confirmed that four Georgian citizens were part of a group of suspects arrested in the United States for alleged attempts to import Russian-made military weapons into the U.S.

March 17 – News broke that Chairman of the Forestry Department of Georgia Bidzina Giorgobiani fled Georgia, citing pressure from the authorities, in particular from the officials of the Security Service.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9371

March 22 – According to a decree by the President of Georgia, a special commission has been set up to work over the issue of repatriation of Meskhetian Turks to Georgia. Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Goga Khaindrava chairs the commission.

March 24 - The official web-site of Georgian President’s administration published a document - Initiatives of the Georgian Government with Respect to the Peaceful Resolution of the Conflict in South Ossetia, which is Tbilisi’s proposal regarding the status of breakaway South Ossetia within the Georgian state and is based on the initiatives voiced by President Saakashvili during his address to the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe on January 26.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9426

March 24 - White House press secretary Scott McClellan said President George W. Bush plans to visit Georgia in May.

March 25 - Visiting Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his Ukrainian counterpart Victor Yushchenko signed a declaration in Kiev regarding the development of strategic relations between the two countries.

March 30 – A new opposition public movement, the People’s Forum for Welfare and Democracy (PFWD), was established. Leader of the Traditionalists Party Akaki Asatiani, who was Saakashvili’s ally during the Rose Revolution, was the founder of this new movement.

March 30 – Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh reiterated his readiness to hold talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, however added that he will not arrive for talks in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, or in Batumi, Adjara Autonomous Republic, as was proposed by the Georgian side.

March 31 – OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel arrived in Tbilisi as a part of his South Caucasian tour.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9493

April

April 1 - President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan paid an unofficial visit to Georgia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9502

April 1 -  Experts from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which have probed into the death of late Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, confirmed the Georgian officials conclusions and announced that Zhvania died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty gas heating devise which was improperly installed in the apartment where Zhvania’s dead body was found on February 3.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9488
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9505

April 1 - Fifty-five Georgian civil society organizations participated in the first-ever NGO Fair in Tbilisi.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9500

April 1 - Unknown gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Prime Minister of breakaway Abkhazia Alexander Ankvab near Sokhumi. Driver was wounded as a result of this incident. It was the second assassination attempt against Alexander Ankvab in two months.

April 2 - Self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezonvsky visited Georgia and met with Tbilisi-based influential media and financial tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili.

April 3-4 - The foreign Ministers of the unrecognized Abkhaz, South Ossetia and Transdnestria regions met in Moscow.

April 3 - President Saakashvili rejected Moscow’s proposal to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – Sergey Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity - in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.

April 7 - Two-day, UN-sponsored talks on the Georgian-Abkhazian peace process were launched in Geneva.

April 7 – Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh rejected the Georgian side’s proposal to meet President Saakashvili in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
 
April 9 – Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis paid one-day working visit to Georgia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9565

April 11 - U.S. Senior Advisor for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy Ambassador Steven Mann, who is also the Special Negotiator for Nagorno-Karabakh and Eurasian Conflicts, and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles held talks with the leadership of breakaway Abkhazia in Sokhumi.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9582

April 12 - The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against Georgia in a case submitted to the court by 13 Russian and Georgian citizens of Chechen origin who were detained by the Georgian border guards in August 2002 near the Russian border. According to the ECHR ruling Georgia has to pay the 13 applicants for non-pecuniary damage amounting to 80,500 euros (EUR), in awards ranging from EUR 2,500 to EUR 11,000, and were given an additional EUR 4,000 to cover costs and expenses.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9586

April 12 - The Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that, despite some effort, the Georgian government has failed to curb torture of detainees in the law enforcement agencies.

April 13 - Georgian government announced that Georgia will unilaterally cancel the visa requirements for the citizens of the United States, Japan, Israel, Canada and EU member countries.

April 14 - Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, arrived in Tbilisi for a three-day official visit to Georgia.

April 14 - The OSCE Permanent Council approved the Training Assistance Programme for Georgian Border Guards (TAP).
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9604

April 16 – News broke that the European Union's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana met with the leaders of Georgia's secessionist provinces Eduard Kokoity and Sergey Bagapsh in Sochi, Russian Federation, on April 5 at the Russian President Putin’s insistence.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9616

April 19 – The Georgian Defense Ministry announced that it has closed down a training camp for the Georgian reserve forces in the village of Dzevera in the South Ossetian conflict zone.

April 21 – Georgian Public Defender Sozar Subeliani, who addressed the Parliament on with human rights report, said that the rights of entrepreneurs in Shida Kartli region are being abused by the local authorities and accused the Governor of the region, Mikheil Kareli, of intimidating local businessmen.

April 22 – Presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, which comprise a coalition known as GUAM, met in the Moldovan capital Chisinau and discussed a revitalization of this organization, which was formed with U.S. backing in 1997.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9681

April 25 - The Russian and Georgian Foreign Ministers made a hand-shake agreement in Moscow on April 25 stating that Russia will close down its two military bases in Georgia by the end of 2007.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9705

April 25 - A number of districts in western Georgia are suffering from one of the worst flood seasons in recent years, due to heavy rains.

May

May 3 - News broke that 12 servicemen abandoned their military unit in Akhaltsikhe and went AWOL, claiming they were subjected to human rights abuses and intimidation from officers and other servicemen in the military unit. All of these servicemen were residents of Akhalkalaki, a town in the southern Georgian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is predominately populated by ethnic Armenians.

May 4 - Several villages of the Lagodekhi district, in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, were flooded after the Kabali river burst its bank.

May 5 - Uzbekistan officially announced that it quits the GUUAM, a grouping of Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

May 6 - Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said after talks with her counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on May 6 that Moscow changed its stance and has refused to adhere to a hand-shake agreement over closure of the Russian military bases in Georgia by January 1, 2008, reached between the two Ministers in April.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9808

May 9 - Leader of Belarus opposition Anatoly Lebedko, who chairs the United Civil Party, arrived in Tbilisi on the personal invitation of Vice-Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Mikheil Machavariani.

May 9 - U.S. President George W. Bush arrived for an overnight visit to Georgia, the last stop in his European trip which also included Latvia, the Netherlands and Russia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9831

May 10 - Both Mikheil Saakashvili and George W. Bush made the concept of “spreading democracy and liberty” a cornerstone of their speeches, delivered to a crowd of tens of thousands of Georgians gathered on Freedom Square in Tbilisi.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9845
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9846

May 11 - Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili confirmed that Georgian security officials found a hand grenade on May 10 on Freedom Square, near a podium from where the U.S. and Georgian Presidents made their public speeches. The Georgian Interior Ministry announced later that it offered 20,000 Lari (approximately USD 10,900) as a reward for valuable information that may lead to the capture of the person who could “threw” an inactive hand grenade.

May 18 - A hand grenade that was found near the site where U.S. and Georgian Presidents addressed tens of thousands Georgians on May 10 from Freedom Square appeared to be “a live device that simply failed to function,” Bryan Paarmann, legal attache at the U.S. Embassy in Georgia who also leads the FBI office in Tbilisi, said.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9908

May 18 - The Georgian Foreign, Defense and State Ministers traveled to Brussels on May 18 to review the implementation of Georgia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with the NATO member states.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9916

May 21 - Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Gomiashvili filed his resignation and slammed the ruling National Movement party after the Parliament refused to approve his nomination as Georgia’s Ambassador to Switzerland.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9941

May 21 - Goga Zhvania, brother of Georgia’s late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, said at a night talk show on Tbilisi-based 202 television that he is “now sure” that his brother was assassinated. He dismissed the official version of Zhvania’s death, which says that late PM died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty gas heating devise, as “groundless.”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9957

May 24 - One Georgian soldier was badly injured in Iraq on May 24 as a result of a mine explosion, while a convoy of Georgian and U.S. troops was heading from Baghdad to Bakuba.

May 24 - Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga arrived for an official visit to Georgia to participate in the celebration of Georgia’s Independence Day on May 26.

May 26 - The U.S. Senate confirmed John F. Tefft as the United States’ new Ambassador to Georgia.

May 28 - 19 Chechen refugees left Georgia’s Pankisi gorge and returned back to Chechnya. This departure was the first officially registered repatriation of Chechen refugees from Georgia.

May 29 - Four South Ossetian armed men and one Georgian policeman died as a result of skirmish, which occurred near the Georgian village of Tamarasheni in the South Ossetian conflict zone.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10003

May 29 - Billionaire philanthropist George Soros, the founder and chairman of the Open Society Institute and the Soros Foundations Network, arrived in Tbilisi.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10017

May 30 - The Georgian and Russian Foreign Ministers signed a joint communique in Moscow which prescribes stages for the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki and which says that the pullout process should be over in the course of 2008.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10008

June

June 3 - The heads of governments from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) noted after a summit in Tbilisi on June 3 that a “new impulse” is needed to enliven their cooperation in frames of this organization.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10045

June 3 - The Parliament approved seven members of the new Central Election Commission. Gia Kavtaradze was approved as the Chairman of the CEC.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10056

June 5 - Lufthansa started operating three weekly flights from Munich to Tbilisi.

June 13 - Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili started four-day visit to the United States.

June 15 - Large-scale military exercises Armor-2005 that involved tank battalions were launched at the Orpolo training ground near Akhaltsikhe in southern Georgia.

June 15 - President Saakashvili visits Ukraine.

June 22 - President of the Georgian Olympic Committee Badri Patarkatsishvili announced that Georgia has made an official bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

June 23 - Neil Bush, the younger brother of the U.S. President, paid a private visit to Tbilisi and met with Georgian President Saakashvili.

June 23 - The Parliament, dominated by the ruling National Movement party, passed with its first hearing the government-backed proposal over the new rule of electing a City Council and the Tbilisi Mayor. The rule envisages the election of a Council through a first-past-the-post, “winner takes it all” system. The Council will then elect the Tbilisi Mayor among its members. The opposition denounced this proposal as a step towards a “one-party dictatorship.”

June 29 - Georgian Finance Minister Valery Chechelashvili filed resignation, after the high-profile arrests conducted by the police in the country’s Tax Department involving corruption charges.

June 30 - Lexo Alexishvili, who was the Economy Minister, became new Finance Minister. Irakli Chogovadze replaced Alexishvili on the Finance Minister’s position. 
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10249

June 30 - Riot police dispersed a rally organized by a group of sportsmen, mainly the Georgian wrestlers, who were protesting against the detention of several wrestlers who are accused of blackmail and extortion.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10263

July

July 1 - Parliament approved amendment to the law on police, envisaging setting up of a military police, which will be in charge of maintaining order and discipline in the military units.

July 1 - The Parliament of breakaway South Ossetia approved Yuri Morozov, native of Russia, as the unrecognized republic’s Chairman of the Government.

July 7 - A decision by the Tbilisi-based Mze (the Sun) television station to halt its daily political talk-show Archevanis Zgvarze (On the Verge of Choice) sparked debates regarding the authorities’ pressure on media sources’ editorial policy.

July 8 - The Georgian Parliament approved the National Security Concept with a 136 to 0 vote.

July 10 - In his opening remarks at an international conference on South Ossetia in Batumi, Adjara Autonomous Republic, President Saakashvili described Tbilisi’s proposal about the South Ossetian status as “a dream list,” which provides Tskhinvali everything it desires except independence.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10328

July 11 - About 32 thousand would-be students participated in the first-ever standardized nationwide entry exams. These exams were part of the education system reform, which aimed at eradication of corruption.

July 12 - President Saakashvili appointed his chief of administration Gigi Ugulava as capital city Tbilisi's Mayor replacing Zurab Tchiaberashvili. The latter became Georgia’s representative to the Council of Europe.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10342

July 14 – MP from opposition Republican Party Valerie Gelashvili was brutally beaten up by a group of unknown armed, masked men in downtown Tbilisi.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10358

July 21 – A person suspected in tossing a hand-grenade during the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Tbilisi in May, was arrested in an operation, which resulted in the death of one security official and the injury of the ‘suspect’ himself. Suspect identified as Vladimir Arutunian admitted later that President Bush was a target of his hand-grenade.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10397

July 25 – Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili alleged on July 25 that agents of Russia’s Main Intelligence Administration (GRU - Glavnoye Razvedovatelnoye Upravlenie) were behind a car bomb explosion in Gori on February 1, which resulted in the death of three Georgian policemen.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10426

July 25 – The Leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - Sergey Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity, respectively - met in the Abkhaz Black Sea town of Gagra and discussed cooperation, as the sides stated, in all sectors of bilateral relations, including military and economic.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10446

August

August 2 - The first-ever joint Georgian-U.S. navy exercises were held on near Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti. The USS Nashville and three Georgian vessels participated in the exercises which included training in ship rescue operations.

August 4 - Both the Georgian and Abkhaz sides described the UN-mediated talks in Tbilisi as a “constructive.”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10488

August 10 - Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said that the government will repay remaining wage and allowances arrears - up to 100 million Lari (USD 55,5 million) in 2006, citing fears of inflation. Initially the government planned to repay these arrears in 2005. The PM said that arrears turned out to be more than expected after exact calculations.

August 10 - BP, which operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, said that the first barrels of oil flowing through the pipeline reached Georgia. This comes after the filling of the Azerbaijani section with roughly 2.3 million barrels of oil.

August 12 - Georgian and Ukrainian Presidents Mikheil Saakashvili and Victor Yushchenko proposed to create a "regional coalition of democratic nations" – an idea which has been reflected in a joint declaration on cooperation signed by the two presidents at the Georgian governmental residence in Likani, near the resort town of Borjomi.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10540

August 12 - The Tbilisi-based TbilAviaMsheni (TAM) aircraft factory has started production on Maverick-style five-seat personal jets with an initial price of USD 1.5 million.

August 16 - The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which administers the U.S. assistance program Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), has approved a five-year USD 295.3 million assistance for Georgia. 

August 17 - Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili announced that the authorities will offer 1,000 Lari (USD 555) for valuable information leading to the capture of drug dealers.

August 19 - Tamar Kintsurashvili was elected to a six-year term by the eight-member Public Broadcasting Board as the Director-General of Public Broadcasting.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10588

August 19 - 11-year-old Geno Petriashvili was kidnapped by unknown men in the South Ossetian conflict zone.

August 21 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili arrived in Armenia for a two day informal visit.

August 24 - Leader of the opposition Republican Party Davit Usupashvili, his wife Tina Khidasheli and their child were slightly injured in a car crash which involved another car in which two brothers, one an 11-year-old boy, died. Usupashvili said accident occurred when a car moving from the opposite side veered out of its lane into oncoming traffic. The police investigate the case.

August 26 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said after the summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Kazan, Russia that Tbilisi will not quit the CIS and will continue to use it as a venue for “consultations and dialogue” with the leaders of Russia and other CIS member states.

August 26 - Georgian citizen Merab Jibuti was arrested by Azeri border guards for alleged illegal crossing of the Georgian-Azerbaijani border. Merab Jibuti is suspected by the Azerbaijani security service of being linked to Ruslan Bashirli, chief of the Yeni Fikir youth organization, who was arrested on August 3 and charged with plotting a coup in Azerbaijan.

August 27 - Shalva Ramishvili, the anchor of the popular talk show “Debates” on private television station 202, was arrested and accused of an attempt to extort USD 100,000 from Koba Bekauri, a parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10642

August 28 - At least two servicemen were reportedly injured as a result of a massive fist-fighting involving dozens of soldiers in the military unit located in Gori.

August 29 - A court in Minsk, Belarus sentenced two activists of the Georgian youth movement Kmara – Giorgi Kandelaki and Luka Tsuladze – to 15 days in prison for hooliganism. The two Georgian citizens were arrested in Minsk on August 24. Amnesty International condemned the arrest and said that it “considers Luka Tsuladze and Giorgi Kandelaki to be prisoners of conscience.”

August 31 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko held talks on in Gdansk, Poland, where the two presidents participated in the events marking the 25th anniversary of the Polish democratic movement Solidarity.

September

September 3 - A team from the Russian NTV television station was assaulted by the local villagers in the Kakheti region when the journalists tried to interview locals about their opinion regarding the erotic movie “Yulia”, parodying Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko. The movie was shot under the sponsorship of the Russian ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party, led by MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Later President Saakashvili justified this attack against journalists as an expression of national pride by local villagers.

September 6 - Two Turkish companies, TAV and Urban and the Georgian authorities signed a contract according to which the Turkish consortium started reconstructing the Tbilisi International Airport.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10689

September 7-9 - Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze participated in the Second World Conference of Parliament Speakers in New York.

September 7 - The Tbilisi City Court found guilty Sulkhan Molashvili, ex-chief of the State Audit Agency, of misappropriation of 3 million Lari (USD 1.6 million). He was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10700
 
September 12 - The United States, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), signed a five-year USD 295.3 million aid program with Georgia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10742

September 15 - News broke that Russian energy giant Gazprom plans to increase the price of gas supplied to Georgia from the current rate of USD 63 up to USD 110 per 1000 cubic meters, starting from 2006.

September 15 - Leader of the opposition New Rights party MP Davit Gamkrelidze requested the President to dissolve the Parliament and to call early elections in order to “prevent plunging the country into a political crisis.”

September 15 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said while addressing a high-level plenary meeting of the 60th session of the UN General Assembly in New York that the UN “must change” and help Georgia put an end to the “annexation of the territory of Abkhazia” by, as he put it, a “neighboring country.”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10758

September 17 - Four opposition parties held first-ever primaries to nominate single candidates for the MP by-elections, which were scheduled for October in five majoritarian (single mandate constituency) seats
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10778
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10496

September 17 - The Georgian police arrested officer from the Tbilisi-based Headquarters of the Russian Troops in the Trans Caucasus (GRVZ) who was suspected in illegal trade of a large amount of Russian-made ammunition.

September 20 - A military parade was held in breakaway South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali to mark the unrecognized republic’s 15th anniversary of de facto secession from Georgia.

September 20 – About ten civilians, including a two-year-old child, were injured as a result of a mortar shelling of South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. The Russian and South Ossetian sides blamed Tbilisi for this shelling, but the latter denied.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10794

September 23 - The U.S. Department of State condemned the September 20 mortar attack in Tskhinvali and urged the Georgian side to immediately bring to justice those responsible for this attack. The U.S. has also called on Russia to stop supporting unrecognized South Ossetian leadership.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10809

September 24 - A group of non-governmental organizations based in Georgia’s southern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is predominately populated by ethnic Armenians, called on the Georgian leadership to consider granting autonomy to the region with “broad authority for self-governance, including the right to hold elections for all bodies of governance.”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10827

September 24 - Finnish President Tarja Halonen arrived in Georgia for a two day official visit.

September 24 - Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has failed to become a meaningful vehicle to help solve the South Ossetian conflict.

October

October 1 – MP nominations from the ruling National Movement party won a landslide victory in October 1 MP by-elections in the five single-mandate constituencies.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10893

October 2 – President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived in Georgia for a two-day visit.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10880

October 3 – The Justice Party, which is led by exiled ex-security chief of Georgia Igor Giorgadze, held a congress in Tbilisi and demanded that the government immediately solve social problems and change its western oriented foreign policy.

October 3 – The public movement “Anti-Sorosist” was established. Founders said that the movement aims at resisting “expansion” of ideas promoted by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, which, as they put it, “threaten the Georgian nation.”

October 4 – President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga arrived in Georgia for a three-day official visit.

October 6 – Hundreds of local residents in Akhalkalaki, a town in Georgia’s south-western region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians, rallied on October 5 protesting against the closure of trade facilities by financial police. Tensions flared up after police fired several shots into the air to disperse the rally.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10921

October 10 – Ten servicemen went AWOL from their military unit in the Dedoplistskaro district in eastern Georgia, citing abuse from officers and other servicemen, as well as poor social conditions in the military unit. All the 10 servicemen are ethnic Azerbaijanis.

October 11 – The Georgian Parliament approved a resolution which serves as an ultimatum for the Russian side in regards to maintaining its peacekeeping forces in Georgia. The resolution instructs the Georgian government to take measures to prepare for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the South Ossetian and Abkhazian conflict zone if the performance of the peacekeeping forces does not improve before February, 2006 and July, 2006 in South Ossetia and Abkhazia respectively.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10940

October 11 – Chief of the Georgian state-run Railway Company Davit Onoprishvili filed his resignation.

October 12 – The Presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will participate in an opening ceremony for the oil pumping station in Georgia’s southern district of Gardabani to mark the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline’s Georgian section.

October 13 – The Georgian Parliament ratified, with a 125-5 vote, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

October 13 – The Georgian Parliament approved to set up a commission to probe into allegations voiced by an investigative report over commercial activities undertaken by Koba Bekauri, a lawmaker from the ruling National Movement party. The parliamentary commission was set up to investigate whether MP Bekauri was directly engaged in the management of the customs terminal Opiza, as well as find out whether it was legal or not for the parliamentarian to take an interest-free loan from a businessmen in order to purchase shares of the terminal. The case was linked with the detention of Shalva Ramishvili, co-founder of the Tbilisi-based 202 television station.

October 15 - Using a handheld mobile phone while driving was banned.

October 17 - A court in Tbilisi ordered the Central Election Commission (CEC) to reconsider a request by the opposition Republican Party and public movement “Forum for Welfare and Democracy” over the appointment of a referendum on whether city mayors and regional governors should be elected through direct elections.

October 18 - In a joint appeal the Parliamentary Committees for Foreign Relations and Integration into Europe requested Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli to sack Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=10986

October 19 - Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli announced that he dismissed Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili, amid confrontations between the ex-Minister and the ruling National Movement party leadership.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11001

October 20 - Gela Bezhuashvili, the Secretary of the National Security Council, was appointed as Georgia’s new Foreign Minister.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11003

October 20 - Ex-Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili was able to assemble the largest public gathering in Tbilisi held in the country since the Rose Revolution, marking the launch of the ex-diplomat’s new political carrier in Georgia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11010
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11005
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11037

October 20 - Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli left for the United States on a 7-day working visit.

October 20 - Georgia's ranking fell slightly in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index, to 99th place from 94th last year, according to annual report issued by the Paris-based watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.

October 24 - A new 17-member opposition parliamentary faction – the Democratic Front - was set up. The new faction unites 8 parliamentarians from the Conservative Party and 6 lawmakers from the Republican Party and three non-partisan MPs.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11032

October 24 - The Parliament of breakaway Abkhazia adopted a law on citizenship. According to the draft law, the citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia are: ethnic Abkhaz, regardless of the place of their residence or their citizenship; persons, who have been permanently living in Abkhazia for no less than five years following the adoption of the Act on Independence of the Republic of Abkhazia on October 12, 1999; citizens of Abkhazia can simultaneously be citizens of the Russian Federation alone, according to the draft. 

October 27 - Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli presented at the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna a plan of action – objectives and steps – the Georgian authorities intend to undertake to foster South Ossetian conflict resolution so that to achieve final solution by the end of 2006.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11069

November

November 2 – At a government session President Saakashvili criticized the cabinet members for their lack of having “direct contact with the people” and slammed lower level bureaucrats for being “scared, inactive and unreasonable.”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11091

November 4 – MP from the ruling National Movement party Gia Kheviashvili was appointed as the new Minister for Refugees and Accommodation (MRA) replacing Eter Astemirova.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11102

November 7 – Four Georgian servicemen were injured after an explosive went off in the Iraqi city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

November 9 - President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus arrived for a two-day official visit to Georgia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11123

November 9 - The Georgian Parliament adopted a draft law on organized crime and racketeering. The law envisages the confiscation of property which was acquired through racketeering. The law defines the terms “thief in law” and "thieves’ world." The latter, according to the draft, is a group of persons who acts in accordance with special criminal rules and aim at gaining profit through intimidation, threats and crime. The "thieves’ world" is led by a “thief in law,” who is a criminal boss, or a criminal authority.

November 13 - Several hundred of supporters of ex-Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili demonstrated in downtown Tbilisi to protest against, as they said, high-handed tactics the police resort to.

November 15 - Dozen of servicemen from the 4th Brigade were hospitalized after a massive fist-fight took place in one of the military units in Tbilisi.

November 16 - Georgian Parliament delegation refused to participate in the Parliamentary Assembly of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in St. Petersburg after the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi refused to issue an entry visa to MP Givi Targamadze, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11157

November 16 - Russia’s surprise proposal to hold quadripartite talks with participation of Georgian and Russian Presidents, as well as leaders of Russia’s North Ossetian Republic and breakaway South Ossetia was not only rejected but also strongly condemned by the Georgian side at the session of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) held in Ljubljana.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11171

November 19 - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan paid a surprise blitz visit to Georgia. He stayed in Tbilisi just for two hours on his way back from Islamabad to New York and met with President Saakashvili.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11178

November 19 - Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said that the Georgian special services helped ex-Secretary of the National Security Council of breakaway South Ossetian Jemal Karkusov escape from prison in Tskhinvali, the capital of the unrecognized republic, and helped him find shelter in the Georgian-controlled territory.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11179

November 21 - Three judges of the Supreme Court – Nino Gvenetadze, Davit Sulakvelidze and Merab Turava, convened a press conference and publicly accused Chairman of the Supreme Court Kote Kublashvili, as well as Chairman of Justice Council Valery Tsertsvadze of pressuring Judges in both Supreme and City Courts.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11305

November 23 - Presidents of Estonia, Georgia, Romania and Ukraine gathered at the Tbilisi Forum: “Europe's New Wave of Liberation” to mark the second anniversary of Rose Revolution.  Arnold Ruutel, Mikheil Saakashvili, Victor Yushchenko and Traian Basescu reiterated the importance of consolidating efforts to promote democracy in the Black Sea-Baltic region.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11204
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11200

November 25 - 11-year-old Geno Petriashvili, who was kidnapped by unknown men on August 19 in the South Ossetian conflict zone, was released.

November 25 - Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli visited Moscow and discussed increase of gas prices for Georgia, the South Ossetian conflict, as well as the process of the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11219

November 29 - A court in Tbilisi sentenced Marek Dudaev, a resident of the breakaway South Ossetian village of Zemo Artsevi, to 23 years of imprisonment for murder, extortion and banditry.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11234

November 29 - The Georgian Defense Ministry has posted on its official web-site the country’s National Military Strategy, which sets goals, threats and objectives held by the Georgian armed forces.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11236

November 30 - The opposition Democratic Front parliamentary faction presented a draft law on lustration, which is aimed at excluding former Communist Party functionaries and officers of and collaborators with the ex-Soviet secret services from serving in state structures of Georgia.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11248

December

December 2 - More than two thousand pensioners gathered outside the Parliament to protest against planned changes in the pension system. Protesters outside the Parliament were demanding the introduction of a pension system based on length of service.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11265

December 2 - Presidents of Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Moldova, Slovenia and Macedonia announced the formation of a Community of Democratic Choice at the forum in Ukrainian capital Kiev.

December 5 - Arrest warrant was issued on ex-leader of Adjara Autonomous Republic Aslan Abashidze after a court in Batumi, Adjara ruled in favor an appeal by the prosecutor’s office to sentence Abashidze to three-month pre-trial custody. The trial was held in Abashidze’s absence, as the ex-leader now resides in Moscow following his ouster in May, 2004.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11270

December 5 – Georgian Military Police arrested Viacheslav Kudziev, deputy chief of police in the Ossetian village of Artsevi, who, according to the Georgian side, was suspected in counterfeiting US dollars.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11273

December 6 – About 140 Chechen refugees residing in the Pankisi gorge of eastern Georgia since 1999 left the country and returned back to Chechnya as a part of official repatriation process.

December 6 – The OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana unanimously adopted a statement on Georgia expressing support towards “the recent proposal” of Tbilisi to peacefully solve South Ossetian conflict. Adoption of this statement, which was support by all 55 member states of the OSCE, including Russia, was hailed in Tbilisi as a success.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11291

December 12 - In an official statement addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and the heads of OSCE member states, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity proposed to develop a joint peace program.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11328
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11377

December 16 - Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli and Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin, who chair the Russian-Georgian intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation, signed a protocol, which envisages setting up a joint consortium on restoration of the Russian-Georgian railway via breakaway Abkhazia.

December 19 - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his Dutch wife Sandra Roelofs celebrated the birth of their second son Nikoloz.

December 22 - President Saakashvili appointed Chairman of the Central Election Commission Gia Kavtaradze as Justice Minister, replacing Kote Kemularia who became Secretary of National Security Council. Saakashvili also announced that Bacho Akhalaia, deputy public defender, was appointed as the new chief of the penitentiary system replacing Shota Kopadze.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11402

December 22 - Romanian President Traian Basescu made a surprise stop in Tbilisi on his way back from Afghanistan. President Basescu who stayed in Tbilisi for couple of hours held talks with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili.

December 22 - Parliament approved 2006 draft budget with a 162 to 20 vote in its first hearing. Although opposition parliamentarians hailed increased budgetary targets for 2006, they criticized draft budget as non-transparent, which enables the government to carry out uncontrolled spending of about GEL 500 million. 
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11399

December 22 - Judicial Discipline Commission of the Council of Justice ruled that four judges of the Supreme Court - Nino Gvenetadze, Merab Turava, Tamar Laliashvili and Murman Isaev, should be dismissed for misconduct. Judge of the Supreme Court Davit Sulakvelidze was reprimand by the Commission for misconduct. Three out of these five judges - Nino Gvenetadze, Merab Turava and Davit Sulakvelidze, have been named by the Georgian media as “rebel judges” after they have publicly spoke out against persisting pressure on the judiciary coming from the authorities.

December 28 - Georgian Energy Minister Nika Gilauri said that possible privatization of the country’s gas pipeline system to the Russian energy giant Gazprom is under consideration but no final decision has been made yet.

December 28 – At talks in Moscow the Georgian side refused to agree on setting up of a joint working group to develop peace program for the South Ossetian conflict resolution as it was proposed by South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=11426