Former Georgian Interior Ministry official Lasha Shergelashvili, who served as the head of the Armaments Department of the Special Operations Directorate, said on Formula TV that a banned substance was used to suppress a protest outside the Central Election Commission in 2020. When asked if he had any suspicions, he replied that he "knew for sure that it was used" as he was there at the time.
The Kremlin confirmed the withdrawal of the Russian military contingent from Nagorno-Karabakh, which was there on a peacekeeping mission by agreement between Baku, Yerevan and Moscow. This was announced by the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
More than two thousand Russian military peacekeepers have been in the part of Karabakh not controlled by Azerbaijan since September 2020. The duration of their stay was determined until 2025. In September 2023, Azerbaijan took full control of Karabakh, which became its sovereign territory. More than 120 thousand ethnic Armenians were forced to leave for Armenia.
Armenia has repeatedly pointed out the inability of Russian troops to provide support. As a result, Yerevan began to move away from Moscow and actually stopped military-political cooperation with it.
Azerbaijan, in turn, did not hide the fact that the situation is temporary, and has repeatedly stated that there are no reasons for the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh. As a result, their withdrawal began, which will take place in several stages.