Tbilisi Correspondent
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Putin 'ready' to discuss Ukraine war with Trump
There was this rather extraordinary situation in most of the public buses in Tbilisi on Friday morning. This recording was continuously played and it was coming through tiny speakers that are part of the ticketing machine. And very soon that news was kind of distributed quite quickly on social media. People were sharing this information. And then came the reaction from the municipal authorities.
Global News Podcast
Putin 'ready' to discuss Ukraine war with Trump
First, they said that it was some kind of technical fault. They didn't immediately say that it was a cyber attack or hacking. And they disabled all of the machines, which meant that passengers could take public transport for free. Do we know how it was done? It seems quite extraordinary.
Global News Podcast
Putin 'ready' to discuss Ukraine war with Trump
The investigation has been launched by the Ministry of Interior and later in the day it was stated that it was indeed a cyber attack. And these machines are operated with the help of one of the biggest banks here in Georgia, the Bank of Georgia. And we don't have the answers yet on who might have put these recordings on all of the public buses in the capital Tbilisi.
Global News Podcast
Putin 'ready' to discuss Ukraine war with Trump
We are talking about the country that has been in a deep political crisis for nearly two months now. And there have been all sorts of protest actions taking place. And one of them, I remember several weeks ago, they were just activists who were getting on public buses and reading some kind of pro-European proclamations. On top of that, there have been continuous protests. Today is the 15th
Global News Podcast
Putin 'ready' to discuss Ukraine war with Trump
And I'm standing now outside the parliament. There are hundreds of people here and they're protesting against the government's decision back in November that this government would put EU accession talks on hold for four years and that anger continues. It's not gone anywhere. People are frustrated.
Global News Podcast
Putin 'ready' to discuss Ukraine war with Trump
But at the same time, the Georgian Dream government, it's the ruling party, they have refused to hear the voices of these people and they have been demanding all along to hold fresh elections.