"Anyone who's had a fight with their mother thinks they can mediate with Iran," said a former US State Department Persian language spokesperson this week, responding to Russia's offer to mediate between the US and Iran. What does he actually mean? A glimpse into the past that Vladimir Putin is apparently trying to hide.

On August 9, 1999, then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and appointed the Federal Security Service chief as prime minister – Vladimir Putin. This marked the security veteran's first entry into state politics, where he has remained ever since. Shortly before taking office, his father died, and about a year earlier his mother had passed away – both from cancer. At least that's what Putin himself claimed. But in a small village in eastern Georgia lived a woman who firmly insisted she was the Russian president's biological mother. The story of Vera Putina, a woman who died in 2023 and who, even after her death, remained the great secret of one of the world's most powerful men.

In 2003, Dutch filmmaker Inge Smits released a film about Putina. According to Putin's alleged mother, the Russian president's father was a Russian mechanic named Platon Privalov. He got her pregnant while married to another woman, hiding this fact from her. When Putina discovered Privalov's wife, she left him. According to her, she gave birth on October 7, 1950 – exactly two years before Putin's official birth date – and named the child Vova, a common nickname for Vladimir.

In 1952, Putina married a Georgian soldier and moved with him and her son Vova to the village of Metekhi in Georgia, located about 12 miles from the city of Gori, where Josef Stalin was born. In December 1960, under pressure from her husband, she gave Vova to his grandparents in St. Petersburg, Russia (then Leningrad), Putin's official birthplace. Putina believed that those whom Putin refers to as his parents adopted her son from his grandparents.

In 2008, the British Telegraph spoke with a former elementary school teacher in Metekhi. That woman claimed she taught Putin between 1958-1960. She described him as "a most brilliant child who loved Russian fairy tales and Russian was his favorite subject. He also loved fishing and wrestling. He was the shortest child in the class but he always wanted to win at everything."

Last year, Israel Hayom interviewed Polish writer Krystyna Kurczab-Redlich, who lived in Russia where she worked as a journalist, published two non-fiction books about Russia, and is currently working on a Putin biography. In the interview, Kurczab-Redlich said that in 2000, while speaking with hospital patients who had been shot by Russian forces, a foreign journalist approached her and told her there was a group of journalists going to meet Putin's mother. According to her, "It wasn't a secret at all."

Kurczab-Redlich added that during that period, a man came to the Chechen embassy in Tbilisi and tried to convince the Chechens to kidnap a woman named Vera from the village of Metekhi for half a million dollars, claiming she was Putin's mother. The Chechens didn't believe him, so the man played them recordings of her neighbors telling stories about Vera and Vova who lived in the village during his childhood. "The next day, when we set out for Georgia, they wouldn't let us in. That's when I understood there's no smoke without fire."

In the past, many questions have arisen about Putin's family history. The Russian president's background is shrouded in mystery, and the details provided in his autobiography about the first decade of his life are very scarce compared to those of other world leaders. According to Putin's official line, his parents were in their forties when he was born, leaving a gap of more than a decade since his two older brothers died in infancy until Putin's birth.

"Imagine that in Leningrad, before Vova's arrival, no one saw Maria pregnant or with a baby carriage," Kurczab-Redlich told Israel Hayom (David Baron). "Vladimir and Maria's two children died. One during the Nazi siege of Leningrad, and the other before that. Children who grew up in the same block said that Aunt Masha brought the new child in her arms, said he was her son, Vova, and asked them not to insult him. Something along those lines."

"He needed to start first grade and learn everything from scratch," she said, "so they issued him a new birth certificate stating he was born in 1952. That's how Vova's real biography began, but in his official biography, to this day, the woman listed as his mother is not his mother, his father is not his father, his birthplace is not the real place, and even the date is off by two years."

According to Putina, she had not seen her son since 1960, but in 1999 suddenly spotted him on television. When asked by Smits how she recognized her son after not seeing him for nearly 40 years, she replied: "No matter how much time has passed, do you think a mother wouldn't recognize her own son?" Putina had a black-and-white photograph of Vova. Photography experts who examined it weren't convinced whether the photo matched the Russian president.

In an interview with the Telegraph, she declared she was no longer willing to speak with journalists on the matter, but challenged Putin to disprove her story. "I'm ready to take a DNA test." Putina also claimed that nurses had visited her and taken blood samples, supposedly for DNA tests, but the results were never published.

Putina's claim also presents an intriguing detail in light of the conflict between Russia and Georgia, giving it a more personal dimension. Moscow has previously claimed that Putina's assertions were nothing but Georgian propaganda. "I used to be proud that my son became the president of Russia, since the war (with Georgia) I've been ashamed," she said in that Telegraph interview.

For those inclined toward conspiracy theories that might strengthen speculation about Putin's mother, some claim that Russian journalist and tycoon Artyom Borovik was on his way to publish the full story about Vera Putina when his private plane crashed. Italian journalist Antonio Russo sent photographs of Putina to Italy in preparation for an article about her shortly before he was shot dead near Tbilisi. No connection has been proven between these deaths and Putina.

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The European Union has suspended Georgia's accession process, just months after granting the South Caucasus nation candidate status, due to concerns over the country's democratic backsliding and adoption of laws mirroring Russian-style restrictions on civil society.

Paweł Herczyński, the EU's ambassador to Georgia, announced the decision at an event on EU enlargement in Tbilisi on Tuesday, Politico reported. "Regrettably, Georgia's EU accession process is stopped for now," Herczyński said, citing a decision made by EU leaders last month.

The move comes in response to the Georgian Dream party's introduction of a controversial law that will label Western-backed NGOs and media outlets as "foreign agents." Critics argue the legislation closely resembles rules used by Russia to suppress dissent and shut down civil society organizations.

What's next for Georgia's foreign agent law? Check out the timeline, from its adoption to elections. pic.twitter.com/q4RH6WDLjT

— OC Media (@OCMediaorg) July 3, 2024

 The announcement of the law in May sparked massive protests in Georgia, with tens of thousands taking to the streets of Tbilisi. Riot police used tear gas and batons to disperse demonstrators, while opposition leaders reportedly faced detention and beatings. Both the EU and the US have condemned the violence and expressed alarm over Georgia's apparent pivot away from the West.

Georgian Dream, the country's ruling party, argues that the foreign agent law is necessary to prevent outside interference. However, its introduction alongside another controversial bill restricting LGBTQ+ rights has raised concerns about Georgia's democratic trajectory. "It is sad to see EU-Georgia relations at such a low point when they could have been at an all-time high," Herczyński lamented.

The decision to freeze Georgia's EU membership process will have significant financial implications. Herczyński revealed that €30 million in payments from the European Peace Facility, the EU's off-budget resilience fund, would be suspended. This could severely impact key Georgian industries like agriculture and winemaking, which rely heavily on EU and US aid.

The United States has gone a step further, imposing sanctions on leading Georgian Dream politicians accused of "undermining democracy in Georgia" and obstructing the country's path to EU membership.

The EU had granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023, despite warnings about democratic backsliding and a failure to implement crucial reforms. Brussels has made it clear that the new "foreign agent" law is incompatible with EU membership aspirations.

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Israel's under-21s on Saturday clinched a semi-final spot in the soccer European Championship, after beating Georgia in dramatic fashion in the penalty shootout.

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The southern state that has been a "Red," Republican state for decades voted for Joe Biden in the presidential election. On Tuesday, Democrats hoped that the state would also elect a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in 20 years.

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However, the Republicans are determined to revert to how things used to be: to regain Georgia, or at least to turn it into a swing state.

Tuesday was one of the most dramatic days American politics have seen in a long time.

Everywhere you go, you can feel that something substantial has happened in the state, and it seems that the Senate elections in the US have never before held such worldwide implications.

One could say that for the first time, local elections to the Senate are becoming elections on America's very character. President Donald Trump noted so himself at his rally in northern Georgia on Monday, in an attempt to encourage Republican voters to go to the polls.

He asked the audience  if they wanted to be a free country, as America should be, or if they wanted to be like Venezuela (more on the rally below.)

Jeff, whom I met in town, thinks like many Georgians: there is no way that the conservative state has turned "blue. "He believes that Democrats will not be able to repeat President-elect Joe Biden's success with the state's two senate seats. if the Democrats win both seats, they will be in charge of the Senate, and Biden will be free to act as he pleases.)

Monday saw Jeff determined to prevent what he considered to be election fraud.

"Of course, there's been [election] fraud, there is no way Trump had lost having received 15 million more votes in the electorate compared to 2016," he said, adding that proving it will probably be difficult.

"It is hard to prove, and a question arises –could it be that all the judges in all the states are corrupt and cooperated with the Democrats? I and the people of Georgia have no doubt that there's been fraud and I hope that this time Republican voters will come to the polls."

The Democratic victory was, in fact, a demographic victory. That is, the changes in the state's population over the past few decades have gradually turned the state blue and had a small impact on the presidential election.
But Jeff believes that Georgians are still more in favor of Trump, as can be felt on the streets.

"You don't have to love the candidate, but you need to appreciate him. President Trump helped Americans from all walks of life. He loves America. He works solely for America."

Jeff insists Democrats are wrong in thinking they can replicate Biden's success by having Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock elected to replace Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

But he warns that corruption is possible. He notes that Stacey Abrams, who tried to run for governor in Georgia but failed, has since been recruiting many voters from the African-American community.

Jeff said that Abrams' sister, who is a judge, rejected the state election fraud petitions filed by Trump officials, and there is concern that this time, with the Senate elections, she and other judges connected to Abrams will do the Democrats' bidding.

In general, people do not understand how Trump could lose the elections if he led all the swing states – even if we take into account the early mail-in votes that are traditionally for the Democrats and are counted late.

"Trump is here to stay. He will be much stronger and more significant, even if he doesn't run [in the presidential election] in 2024," Jeff concluded.

Either way, for Trump, the campaign for Georgia's two Senate seats, which will decide who will gain full control of Congress, is a battle for his legacy in the party.

The final chord of his tenure is the opening tune of Joe Biden's presidency, who hopes that November's momentum will bring about the Democratic victory of the two Senate seats in Georgia, giving him almost complete freedom to promoting his party's agenda in Congress.

Thousands attended Trump's rally, young and old, with babies and strollers, in the freezing cold, waiting in long lines – only to see President Donald Trump, their rock star, arrive in Dalton in northern Georgia.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., shared heartwarming news with the crowd and announced that he was transitioning from business into politics.

He attacked what he called the "troll" of Democrats, who took advantage of Sunday's new Congress opening prayer and turned it into an event with their politically correct agenda on a level that has never been seen before, as they turned a traditional prayer into one that finishes with the words "Amen and a-woman."

"Amen is not a gendered term. It's been used for a couple of thousands of years," Trump Jr. said. "If I go to a restaurant and I ask to see what's on the woman-u, they would look at me like I'm a moron."

He said the Senate vote was the most significant for America as it decided on the very character of the country, its churches, and schools.

As in his presidential campaign, Trump came this time to Georgia to hold a massive rally that would excite the base and make a difference in the neck and neck battle over the southern state's two Senate seats. In terms of attendees, Trump has won. The audience roared that they had prevented election fraud.

Trump himself does not look like a man who intends to give up, and he knows that only today will the official president be announced.
He even said he hopes Vice President Mike Pence will use all his bearing at the two houses of Congress to ensure the electoral count ends with him being named president-elect.

Today, during the crucial Congress session, the November election will come to an end, in one way or another.
Some Republicans in the Senate will do anything to get the process dragged on for hours in an attempt to disqualify electoral votes, and Trump will be holding a rally in Washington.

Will the end of the vote count reveals that he has won 270 electorates? He continues to hope.

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Dalton is a town in northern Georgia. When you arrive, everything is metaphorically red, like Georgia itself was for decades until it voted for Biden in November.

But in Dalton, Republican is the only way to vote. I'm sitting in the Oakwood Café, considered a city institution, and the feeling is that morale isn't especially high. The fact that Trump didn't win in November has hurt his supporter's mood and confidence.

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There weren't many visitors because of COVID, I thought. "Sit where you like," the waitress tells me.

I meet one of the diners, Claire. She doesn't understand what happened to people in Atlanta.

"I vote like my grandfather, and I expect my granddaughter to do the same. But something happened in Atlanta, unless there was election fraud," she says, and adds: "I'm so exciting that Trump is coming here. We won't disappoint him because he doesn't disappoint us."

Dalton is the carpet capital of the world – it has carpet factories on every corner. The city is home to many working-class people.

A group of people who came from Chattanooga, Tennessee, is sitting in the café. They are convinced that Trump will be president again. Mostly, they don't understand how the South is losing Georgia.

A family sitting at another table is from Gainesville, and they came especially to see the president. They are dressed accordingly, in Trump campaign shirts.

"We drove two hours just to see him. We believe he'll have another four years, not in 2024, but in January," they tell me. "The media kicked him out but we, the people, will put him back," the mother says.

Her husband adds: "You're from Israel. We heard they really like him there. He's the president that brought peace."

In the parking lot, I meet Lloyd. He arrived from Pensacola, Florida – a 400-mile drive. "The God of Israel is loyal to his people and I believe there will be a miracle, and he will be president," he says. Lloyd is going on to Washington to witness the miracle that he says will happen on Wednesday, when Congress counts the electoral votes.

Two months ago, everything was almost done: Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler were on the brink of victory, and almost won Georgia's two Senate seats.

The suburban story

But in this southern state, the special law does not allow a simple win – candidates must secure over 50% of the vote. Therefore, as if the law were written especially for the insane 2020 election, we find ourselves in a situation in which the second round for the state's two Senate seats will decide who controls the upper house of the US Congress – and to a large extent determine President-elect Joe Biden's ability to promote a left-wing agenda.

In general, the story of Georgia is the story of the suburbs: movement to the suburbs of America's large cities created blue, liberal bubbles in the heart of red Georgia. That was enough to give Biden a narrow win two months ago, but will the Democrats keep Georgia Democratic in Tuesday's Senate runoff? It's tough to believe. But Georgia is purple – neither red nor blue. And it could be interesting.

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If the Democrats win both seats on Tuesday, the Senate will split 50-50 and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will have the deciding vote. The two seats are worth their weight in gold: President Trump and President-elect Biden both came to Georgia on Monday to hold rallies, in an attempt to decide the runoff. The Republicans have an easier job, since they only need to win one seat to maintain control of the Senate.

The media laid into the president this week because of a phone conversation he had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about finding him votes that weren't counted properly. The Democrats claimed that this was an abuse of presidential authority as bad as Watergate, but former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a resident of Georgia, defended the president and said he was simply "behaving like a president," and had a right to exercise his rights.

Gingrich and other Republicans think that the Georgia secretary of state did something unacceptable by recording the conversation, and the White House even turned the case over to the Secret Service to see if it entailed some violation of espionage laws.

Tuesday's runoff is for two seats. One race is between incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler and African-American pastor Raphael Warnock. The second race is between incumbent Senator David Perdue and Jewish candidate Jon Ossoff. The Republicans are on the defensive, like Trump in the 2020 election. A situation has been created that is fateful not only for the Senate, but for Trump's political future: on Wednesday, both houses of Congress will meet to count the votes cast by the states' electors, and when it is over, the president-elect will officially be declared.

Trump knows that this is his last chance to continue on to a second term. Trump still believes that this session can give him a victory, and he has backing from Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has already enlisted more than 10 senators, and a few congressional representatives.

Trump hopes that the momentum Cruz is building up will lead to a long procedure at the end of which, neither Trump nor Biden will have 270 electors. In that case, the decision would be handed over to the House of Representatives, which would have to hold a special vote. The chances that the complicated process will go that far are slim, but Trump intends to hold a massive rally in Washington on Wednesday to pressure the Republicans to do everything they can.

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I met Corey Russel near a Waffle House in Atlanta, Georgia, just two days before the crucial Senate runoff to decide which party gets to control the Senate for the next two years.

Russel, an African American born and raised in the southern state, has nothing but praise for the GOP and the outgoing president.

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despite what the mainstream would have you think, the Democrats don't have a lock on the African American vote. According to Russel, many African Americans are grateful for the Republicans and the outgoing administration for what they have done to grow the economy over the past four years.

 Q: Corey Russel, are you going to be for the Republicans or for the Democrats on Tuesday?

Republicans, all the way.

Q: How come, explain to me, we are in Georgia.

Republicans and I were history even when Ronald Reagan was in office. All of the Republicans give the money to the people, our taxpayer money always ends up in the people's hands. When the Democrats are here, everybody is broke; everybody is struggling, all of the small businesses are struggling. Small businesses employ 99% of the American population, only 1% is paid by big corporations, your IBMs, and all the big companies. They don't hire but 2,000 or 3,000 people, but you are talking about millions of people who are all employed by small businesses. Trump is the first president in my lifetime, 49 years old, that gave all of the opportunity to all of the immigrants that came to this country, and all of the black people and low-income white people in this country. 

As far as Russel is concerned, despite Trump's shortcomings, even those who did not vote for him appreciate what he has done to make the country – and their personal wellbeing – improve.

Q: You were born here, sir, in Georgia?

I was born right here in the state of Georgia. Griffin, Georgia

Q: Mr. Trump was a good president?

Trump is the best president that we had since Roosevelt, from what I learned about in history. And remember - the republicans fought in the civil war to free black people and free the slaves in this country.

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A Georgia law passed in 2016 requires some people to sign an oath pledging not to boycott the Israeli government in order to do business in the state.

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In her federal lawsuit, Abby Martin says she refused to sign the oath, and her scheduled appearance this month at a Georgia Southern University media conference was then canceled.

"I will not forfeit my constitutional rights by signing this pledge," Martin said at a Monday news conference to announce the lawsuit.

Spokespeople within Georgia's university system referred questions to Georgia Southern spokesman John Lester. He said Georgia Southern hasn't yet seen the lawsuit.

"Ms. Martin's concerns appear to be related to requirements of a state law enacted in 2016," Lester said in a statement.

The law "requires that anyone who wants to contract with the state of Georgia for services worth more than $1,000 sign an oath pledging that they will not boycott the Israeli government," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Georgia.

"That oath applies whether you are a substitute teacher who wants to work for our public school system, whether you are a construction worker who wants to build something for our state, or whether you are a journalist who wants to speak at a state university," Mitchell said.

"Imagine if during the Civil Rights movement, the state of Alabama passed a law saying if you want to work for our state, you cannot participate in the Montgomery bus boycott," he added.

Martin was to be paid a $1,000 honorarium plus expenses to be the keynote speaker for the 2020 International Critical Media Literacy Conference. So university officials asked her to sign a "Memorandum of Agreement" which stated: "You certify that you are not currently engaged in, and agree for the duration of this agreement not to engage in, a boycott of Israel."

After Martin refused to sign the university prevented her from speaking and the entire conference was canceled, the lawsuit states.

The law is similar to others passed in recent years in more than 20 states, including Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and Maryland, Mitchell said. His organization has been involved in fighting such laws nationwide, including Georgia's.

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According to investigators, the smuggling ring included employees at the Ben Gurion International Airport, who allegedly exploited their special access to overcome passport control and bring the foreigners, mostly Georgian, to Israel.

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Police suspect the airport employees were bribed in order to help the smugglers breach security.

The ring was active from early 2017 with several separate groups coordinating their activity, some in Israel and the others abroad.

"This was akin to an underground tunnel that was operating right under our noses at the airport," a senior law-enforcement official said on Monday. "If Georgians could arrive this way, so could terrorists, but we have no indication of this actually happening," he said.

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