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☆ Georgia boils Caucasian grape candy as wine harvest ends
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( David Chkhikvishvili | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Roman Churikov/ File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsTBILISI, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Georgia's grape harvest may be over, but vineyard owner and hotelier George Piradashvili's work for the year is far from finished. At his winery in the eastern region of Khakheti, Piradashvili is boiling leftover grape juice from this year's harvest - on strings, together with flour and walnuts, to produce a signature delicacy: churchkhela. Throughout Georgia, the sticks of hard-boiled grape juice studded with walnuts hang from market stalls and shops. Chewy churchkhela sticks go some way to sweetening an otherwise heavy and often spicy diet. The grape juice must be stirred to prevent it setting too soon as it boils and thickens in great vats for hours on end - a highly physical task.

Persons: George Piradashvili, George Piradashvili's, Piradashvili, Fabrizio, Gvantsa, Felix Light, Kevin Liffey, Tomasz Janowski Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Thomson Locations: Telavi , Georgia, Rights TBILISI, Khakheti, Throughout Georgia, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Tbilisi, Argentina

☆ Russian and Iranian emigres find haven in old Armenian factory
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-09 | by ( Roman Churikov | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Launched in 2022, the project is called Abastan - "shelter" in Armenian - and is open to participants and guests from around the world. Polina Ivanova, a co-founder of Abastan, said locals in the northern Armenian town of Tumanyan were at first bemused by the strangers in their midst. Arghavan Majd, a painter from Iran, said she found the atmosphere "more free" in Abastan and it was easier to make personal connections. Timofey Moskovkin, a Russian now working in a cafe funded by the charity, said local people in Tumanyan, a town of about 1,000 people, had treated him warmly. "We looked and saw the lights were on, it was beautiful, there was music and young people dancing," he said.

Persons: Polina Ivanova, Abastan, Majd, Mahsa Amini, Vladimir Putin, haven't, Danil, Timofey, Mark Trevelyan, Gareth Jones 私 Organizations: Armenia Locals, Reuters, Georgian Locations: Russia, Iran, Ukraine, Tumanyan, Armenia, Soviet, revitalise, Abastan, Russian, Perm, Ararat, Soviet Union

☆ Azerbaijan says it sees amnesty for Karabakh fighters who lay down arms
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS/file photo Acquire Licensing RightsGORIS, Armenia, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan envisages an amnesty for Karabakh Armenian fighters who give up their arms, though there have been some Karabakh military units which have said they will continue their resistance, an Azeri presidential adviser told Reuters. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday said his iron fist had consigned the idea of a separate ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history and that now the region would live in "paradise" as part of Azerbaijan. Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan's president, told Reuters in a television interview that Baku envisaged an amnesty for those Karabakh fighters who gave up their weapons. Karabakh Armenian rights would be respected as part of their integration into Azerbaijan, he said, adding that they had requested humanitarian support as well as oil and gasoline supplies. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia was prepared to accept refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Persons: Nikol Pashinyan, Hayk, Ilham Aliyev, Hikmet Hajiyev, Hajiyev, Roman, Guy Faulconbridge, Peter Graff Organizations: REUTERS, Karabakh, Wednesday, Reuters, Soviets, Thomson Locations: Nagorno, Karabakh, Yerevan, Armenia, Photolure, Azerbaijan, Baku, Soviet Union, Russia, West, Turkey, Armenian, Russians, Ottomans, South Caucasus, United States, Iran

☆ Sweltering summer bodes ill for Georgia's strays
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Aug 22 (Reuters) - In the blistering heat of a Caucasian summer, Tbilisi's stray dogs and cats are struggling to survive. According to activists, around 500,000 stray dogs and cats live in the country alongside 3.7 million humans. But with Georgia setting new temperature records amid Europe's rolling heatwave, Tbilisi's animals have been suffering. "The attitude was not very good," said Mariam Tsertsvadze, another Animal Project co-founder. "It’s so hard in Georgia to find new owners and forever homes for cats and dogs," he said.

Persons: Natia Chikovani, Mariam Tsertsvadze, Keso Baramidze, Tsertsvadze, It’s, Roman Churikov, Felix Light, Giles Elgood Organizations: Thomson Locations: Georgia, Tbilisi

☆ Russian clothing brands plug gap left by Western rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Roman Churikov | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] People line up to enter an H&M store, which was reopened to sell the remaining stock before the company exits the Russian market, in Moscow, Russia August 2, 2022. Spain's Inditex (ITX.MC) has sold some of its more than 500 Russian stores to a UAE-based buyer. Gloria Jeans, once a re-seller of Levi's jeans, has taken over Swedish retailer H&M's central Moscow store. Russians have developed solutions with small-scale imports and online sellers helping to keep foreign brands alive, but some things remain difficult to find. Shopper Irina Nikulina said she did not miss foreign brands too much, except when needing something simple, like a reasonably priced white t-shirt.

Persons: Maxim, Spain's, Anton, Antonina, Oleg Klimov, Gloria Jeans, Ksenia Zhdanova, Zhdanova, Irina Nikulina, Tatiana Vakhonina, Roman Churikov, Lev Sergeev, Alexander Reshetnikov, Alexander Paramoshin, Alexander Marrow, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Russia's, Shopping, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine MOSCOW, Ukraine, UAE, Zara, Soviet Union, Kazakhstan

☆ When it's dumpling-eatin' time in Georgia...
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TBILISI, April 12 (Reuters) - In the mountainous Caucasus nation of Georgia, dumpling-eating is a serious affair. "I'm not Georgian, but the first rule I learnt when I came to Georgia was how to eat khinkali," says Sergei Shirinsky, who dubs himself a connoisseur. That's the first rule," Shirinsky says. "If you add something other than pepper you can go to prison in Georgia," Shirinsky jokes as he manoeuvres the fluffy parcel past his moustache, completing a demonstration of how khinkali should be eaten. The exact origins of the dumpling in Georgia are unclear, but it has been prepared in towns and villages across the country for centuries and different regions still bicker over who invented it and who makes it best.

Stepan, 28, who has increasingly driven Chinese cars when using carsharing services, is among those that need convincing. If you want my honest opinion, the difference (with Chinese cars) is massive," he told Reuters at Moscow's Favorit Motors dealership. When buying his new Chinese car, Alexander, 74, looked for one which encompassed Swedish technology. While Chinese cars are increasingly filling the gap, the lack of reputation remains an issue, said auto industry expert Sergey Aslanyan. Chinese brands' market share reached 37.15% in January-February, up from 9.48% a year earlier, Autostat and PPK data showed.

With Russia embroiled in conflict again in Ukraine, in what the Kremlin says is a fresh existential battle for national survival, memories of the Soviet dictator loom large. "Firstly, thank you for the victory (in World War Two)," said 21-year-old Madina in a typically mixed view of Stalin's legacy among people on the streets of Moscow. said Moscow resident Andrei, 31, praising Stalin as a strong unifying personality whose war victory should be lauded. Today, Gori's Stalin museum, located on the town's Stalin Avenue, is the town's most famous tourist attraction, drawing visitors from across the world. In 2010, the Georgian government ordered the town's Stalin statue removed, saying he did not deserve it.

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