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Georgia

Abkhazian Leader Dodges Yet Another Barrage Of Bullets

Russian military helicopters are searching the mountains of Abkhazia, a break-away republic of Georgia, for suspects in a Wednesday ambush on Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvab. The leader survived the attack. Two of his bodyguards did not. Could Moscow

This is the fifth assassination attempt against Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvab (YouTube)
This is the fifth assassination attempt against Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvab (YouTube)
Anna Kasatkina, Pavel Taracenko, Georgiy Dvali

TBILISI -- The car of Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvab was ambushed by unknown assailants Wednesday morning as he was driving towards Sukhumi, the regional capital of Abkhazia, a break-away republic of Georgia. President Ankvab was not injured, but two of his bodyguards died from wounds and two more were seriously wounded. In addition to the machine-gun fire on the president's car, there were also several land-mines detonated.

Abkhazia considers itself an independent state and is recognized as such by Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The rest of the international community considers it part of Georgia, even though it has operated with de-facto independence since the Georgia-Abkhazia war in the early 1990s. Russia continues to have a strong military presence, ostensibly for peacekeeping, in the break-away republic, which still engages in periodic violence with Georgia.

The Abkhazian embassy in Russia confirmed the news of the assassination attempt and said military helicopters have been deployed in an effort to catch the would-be assassins, who are presumed to be hiding in the mountains.

"It is very good that Alexander Ankvab once again stayed alive," Paata Zakareishvili, one of the Georgian opposition leaders, told Kommersant. The Abkhazian president has survived numerous assassination attempts. Zakareishvili described Ankvab as "a sensible politician, with whom we can and must work, including towards the regularization of the Georgian-Abkhazian relations."

Signs of "Moscow's hand"?

Authorities in Tibilisi, the Georgian capital, denied speculations of a "Georgian fingerprint" in this assassination attempt on Ankvab. David Avalishvili, an independent political scientist, explained that the assassination attempt took place "deep in Abkhazia" – in other words, far from the Georgian border. "In addition, it is more or less an ‘Abkhazian" region, by population. Almost 100% of the residents are Abkhazian. And a large group of Russian paratroopers is stationed at the local airport," Avalishvili explained.

Georgian observers tended to see "Moscow's hands' in the events. "Alexander Ankvab always stood out in that he defends his opinions very assertively. He is not a very convenient partner for Moscow," said Timur Mzhaviya, a former representative of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia, part of the Abkhazian government in exile that is located in Georgia. Mzhaviya struggled, however, to say exactly whom Ankvab might have angered in Moscow. "There are differences of opinion, but they are generally carefully hidden and only rarely come to light," he said. "It's possible that they just wanted to scare the Abkhazian leader, since the Russian special forces are professional enough to have finished off the job."

It is also worth noting that this is the fifth assassination attempt against President Ankvab, who previously served as the prime minister and vice-president of Abkhazia. Two assassination attempts took place in 2005 and one in 2007. In those cases, a jeep that Ankvab was riding in was shot at by unknown gunman, and he was lightly injured. Ankvab was also injured in an assassination attempt in 2010 when his home was shot at with grenade launchers.

Read the original article in Russian

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Society

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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