Russia to open Georgian-Russian university in Tbilisi - head of Primakov Center in Georgia
Georgian-Russian University in Tbilisi
A Georgian-Russian university will be opened in Tbilisi, Dmitry Lortkipanidze, head of the Primakov Center in Georgia, said. Also, according to him, it is planned to open a direct flight from Tbilisi to St. Petersburg. Lortkipanidze told Russian-language media in Georgia about this.
According to him, at this stage there is a search for a building for the university, education in which will be free, and the costs will be covered by the Russian Federation.
According to Lortkipanidze, the meeting with Russian representatives in St. Petersburg on July 3-7 “turned out to be very fruitful in a number of areas”, and it will be possible to start discussing concrete steps soon:
“Very soon we will have the opportunity to start discussing the creation of a Georgian-Russian university. I don’t want to get ahead of events, but I believe that by the end of September and the beginning of October we will have a clearer picture and there will be details and details related to this university.”
According to Lortkipanidze, Georgian-Russian relations are now being “resuscitated”, and many Russian citizens want to transfer their business to Georgia.
“We are planning our next visit to the Russian Federation in September and expect new interesting initiatives from the Russian side. There is a process of resuscitation of relations, at the same time, direct and immediate communication is very important. I notice that many Russian citizens have a great desire to transfer their business to Georgia. On the other hand, there are many Georgians who would like to start their own business in Russia.”
From Georgia, besides Lortkipanidze, there were Tamar Kiknadze, Temur Maisuradze, Gocha Tsopurashvili, Giorgi Mdivani, Gorgiy Ukhurgunashvili, Ana Khotivrishvili and students studying in Russia in St. Petersburg.
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The Georgian-Russian Primakov Public Center was established in 2013 by the Gorchakov Foundation and the Georgian Institute of International Relations, founded by decree of the President of Russia. The Center finances Russian language courses and other activities. Since March 2018, the director of the Primakov Center has been Dmitry Lortkipanidze, a former party member and member of the Georgian parliament, Nino Burjanadze.
The Alexander Gorchakov Foundation for Public Diplomacy has been on the list of sanctioned organizations of the European Union since July 21, 2022. This is one of the organizations that, according to the definition of the European Union, supports Russian aggression in Ukraine.
An official EU document states that the organization was established in 2010 on the initiative of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, its founder is the Russian Foreign Ministry, and the head of the Board of Trustees is Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The document on individuals and organizations under EU sanctions also states that the Russian Foreign Ministry finances the Gorchakov Foundation, which, in turn, allocates funds to various non-governmental organizations and think tanks created by the Russian Federation.
“The Grchakov Foundation was created to support the ideology of Russia in the post-Soviet space, which is one of the goals of the Kremlin. The projects organized by the Gorchakov Foundation contain important elements of Russian foreign policy discourse.
On September 12, 2022, TBC Bank allegedly closed the accounts of the Primakov Georgian-Russian Community Center and explained that the bank strictly complies with international sanctions and, accordingly, initiated the closure of the account of a legal entity/organization founded by a sanctioned legal entity.
