Russian-Georgian meetings at the level of NGOs and the media have already become a tradition: they have been held regularly for several years, each time demonstrating the potential of deepening of cooperation in different directions.
At this time, according to one of the leaders of the forum, the Director of the Georgian Cooperation Forum (GFS), Timur Kobalia, the Georgian-Russian forum of non-governmental organizations has focused on ecology: in Tbilisi it was attended by representatives of Russian NGOs specializing in environmental protection and analysis of the natural processes taking place in the Caucasus region. According to the fact that the North and the South Caucasus are indivisible in terms of ecology, the initiative of Timur Kobalia and the director of the club of Russian lawyers, the head of the organizing committee GFS, Maria Kanevskaya, seems to be quite timely.
Together with the NGOs, the best students of the Moscow Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting Ostankino arrived in the Georgian capital. The youngsters have met with Georgian journalists, recorded several interviews with the political leadership of the country, got acquainted with the functioning of the 'House of Justice' and promised to prepare five videos about the Georgian reforms to place them on the website of the University and on social networks.
But the main thing in the end was the eco hotel Old Tbilisi, the windows of which offer beautiful views of Kurus and the center of the city, greatly affected by the recent environmental disaster: the overflows of the banks of a tributary of the Kura River and the flooding of the local zoo and the central Square of Heroes, as result of which 22 people were killed.
Naturally, at the forum there was much talk about the need for respect for nature and the danger of human capabilities "to rein in the forces of nature." Participants were particularly interested in the project of building a new gigantic hydropower plant on the Inguri River. Experts from the public movement "Georgian Greens" have argued that the construction of the Khudoni HPP poses an enormous threat to the environment. In turn, the Russian participants talked about the environmental situation in the North Caucasus.
Information about the mortal danger posed to the environment, and therefore human health, of plastic bottles, was of great interest. They are simply thrown away because there is no tradition or facilities for recycling in Georgia. Then the plastic enters the water and ultimately the human body. The sad conclusion: the number of cancer patients in Georgia grows annually by 0.25%.
The forum's participants have adopted a final resolution, which noted the usefulness of meetings and ongoing dialogue of NGOs "across borders." This will certainly contribute to the practice of recent times, when Russian NGOs registered in Georgia, taking advantage of the fact that to register you needed only 1-2 hours in the 'House of Justice'.
