Plans for a spaceport near a quiet village in western Georgia are raising alarm. Although officially presented as the private project of two Russian “exiles”, leaked documents suggest financial irregularities and close ties with shady figures reaching all the way back to the Kremlin.
While the pro-Kremlin government official figures celebrate a record tourism boom, Georgia’s hospitality sector faces closures, layoffs and plummeting prices – as political turmoil and uncertainty scare away European visitors and stall local recovery.
The rise of conservatism – often tinged with religion – has gone hand in hand with an increase in hate speech and assaults on LGBT+ people. Transgender and intersex people in particular are bearing the brunt of this moral panic.
