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 international non-governmental organization «Reporters without Borders» has released an annual world rating of freedom of speech. In it, Russia took the 164th place out of 180 possible, having dropped to 9 positions at once.
The authors of the rating report that since the announcement of the Russian military operation on the territory of Ukraine in 2022 almost all independent media have been shut down, blocked or declared by foreign agents" and undesirable organizations". Everyone else goes through military censorship.
Azerbaijan ranked 151st, Armenia 49th, Georgia 77th. Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands are among the most successful countries. These same countries are leading the ranking of the happiest countries in the world.