On 1 April, Georgia’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ivane Machavariani announced his resignation in a post on social media.

“We have successfully completed negotiations with the International Monetary Fund mission on the eighth review of the program supported by the Extended Fund Facility. After its approval at the meeting of the Executive Board of the Fund, additional financial resources will be available for Georgia,” he wrote.

“Georgia is one of the first countries to receive significant support from partners (World Bank, International Monetary Fund, EU) shortly after the start of the global pandemic. I am especially proud that I had the opportunity to take an active part in these negotiations. I would like to inform the public about my decision to resign as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. I have to say that after almost three years of working as the Minister of Finance, I was still planning to resign at the end of last year, but due to the 2021 crisis budget approval procedure, and important negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, I decided to postpone my move for several months,” he emphasized.

“It was an honour for me and at the same time a great responsibility to work with the Georgian Dream political team – with government leaders, with my colleagues in the cabinet of ministers, with members of parliament. I would like to wish the Prime Minister (Irakli Garibashvili) and the members of the government, the political union “Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia” success in overcoming all the challenges facing our country today,” he added.

Machivariani’s deputy  Lasha Khutsishvili was appointed as Georgia’s new finance minister, alongside Rati Bregadze as the country’s new justice minister (who earlier held the post of deputy defence minister). Bregadze will replace Gocha Lortkipanidze who became the first Georgian judge in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague.

A day earlier, Armenia’s Minister of High-Tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan announced his resignation, almost two weeks after assaulting a journalist at a restaurant in Yerevan. “As a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, I find it unacceptable for an official to use violence against any citizen. As a top official, as a person representing the Republic of Armenia in the international arena, I have to serve as an example for the society. Thereby, I express my intolerance to the violence both physical and psychologically. I hope what happened will serve as a lesson for our society and we will love each other more and respect the right of immunity of personal and family life,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Arshakyan referred to a violent incident at the restaurant where he dined with his wife on 18 March. Footage from a security camera publicised afterwards showed him hitting Paylak Fahradyan, the editor of the Irakanum.am news website, in the face and damaging his laptop computer. The assault reportedly occurred moments after Fahradyan approached Arshakyan and asked him to explain why he is not at work. In his first reaction to the incident, Arshakyan implicitly accused Fahradyan of violating his privacy but said he is ready to bear responsibility for his actions. He later apologised to the journalist.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan appointed the governor of Tavush province Hayk Chobanyan as Arshakanyan’s successor.