Tag Archives: Georgia

EBRD AGM heading to Georgia

FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to hold its AGM in Tbilisi in 2015. This will be the EBRD’s 24th AGM and the first to be held in the South Caucasus. For Georgia, the EBRD’s AGM gives it an opportunity to showcase Tbilisi.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

NATO base in Georgia is provocative -Russia

FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia described NATO’s move to open a training base in Georgia as a provocation. NATO intends to open the base this year. Alexander Grushko, Russia’s envoy to NATO, said: “Emergence of NATO military facilities in Georgia is a step towards escalation of tension and worsening of regional security.”
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Georgia cuts growth rate

>>Russian woes continue to weigh on South Caucasus region>>

FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia became the latest country in the South Caucasus/Central Asia region to downgrade its economic forecast for this year.

Finance minister Nodar Khaduri said growth would measure 4% in 2015, down from an earlier prediction of 5%.
Like its neighbours, the slowdown in Russia’s economy is also impacting on Georgia.

“Economic growth in Armenia and Moldova this year was zero percent. A drop is expected in economic growth in Ukraine and Russia due to well-known reasons,” media quoted him as saying.

Georgia’s economy is slightly better sheltered from the economic storm swirling around Russia. The depressed state of the Russian economy has hit Armenia hard and the fall in the price of oil has dented Azerbaijan’s economy.

Georgia, though, is not reliant on either the Russian economy nor on oil prices. That said, both still filter through and impact Georgia.

The Georgian Central Bank has already said it will likely raise interest rates later this month to try and combat the falling value of its lari currency.

“Considering the challenges in the economy today and analysing the numbers and data it is necessary that we start to revise the 5% growth prognosis and plan macroeconomic and fiscal indicators from the beginning so they adequately reflect the economic policy, and respond to these challenges,”” Mr Khaduri said.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

GDP grows in Georgia

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s GDP grew by nearly 5% in 2014, media reported, a healthy spurt despite pressures from a faltering Russian economy and a drop in global oil prices (Jan. 30).
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

11 policemen arrested in Georgia

FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — News reports from Georgia said 11 former and serving police men have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the 2006 murder of a man. A bomb killed the man’s father last month. The police are accused of a cover up and the case may rock the establishment. Georgia’s interior minister resigned last month.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Georgia to tighten monetary policy

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Central Bank chief, Georgy Kadagidze, said he would tighten monetary policy next week after another drop in the value of its lari currency. Mr Kadagidze has said that he would not spend the bank’s reserves heavily to prop up the lari which has lost around 15% of its value since November.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

NATO plans training base in Georgia

>>Russia has warned Georgia about getting too close to NATO>>

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — NATO plans to open training facility in Georgia by the end of the year, a move certain to irritate Russia which has previously warned the Georgian government not to get too close to the Western military alliance.

Alexander Vershbow, NATO deputy secretary-general, announced the opening of the base on a trip to Tbilisi.

For Georgia, the decision by NATO to open a training centre is a major diplomatic coup. It is desperate to join the alliance and has been a keen supporter of its mission in Afghanistan. Georgia still has soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

As for NATO, the move is more risky. It doesn’t want to antagonise Russia but it also needs to look strong.

Over Ukraine, Russia and NATO are already engaged in something of a proxy war. NATO accuses Russia of sending weapons and soldiers to help pro-Russian rebels fight the Ukrainian forces. It is also considering arming the Kiev government forces.

It’s not entirely clear what the NATO training centre in Georgia will look like or what it will actually do. Relations between Georgia and Russia have steadily been improving since a war in 2008.

During the war, Russia forces roamed parts of Georgia and occupied military bases. Placing a base, even a training centre, in Georgia will move NATO onto the frontline.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Russia ratifies alliance with Abakhazia

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian parliament ratified a new alliance with the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia. The deal will increase Russia’s military presence in the region. Georgia denounced the deal as aggressive. Russia also plans to sign a similar pact with South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway region.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Georgian lari hits 10-year lows

>>Pressure building on the C.Bank as lari hits 10-year lows>>

JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s economic policymakers have said that they will not intervene to halt the fall in the value of the lari currency.

Pressure has been building on the Central Bank as the lari has lost 7% of its value against the US dollar this year, adding to a 12% loss at the end of 2014.

But economy minister, Giorgi Kadagidze, said that the Central Bank would not start spending its reserves to prop up the currency.

The lari is now trading at over 2 to the US dollar. This is the cheapest that the lari has been for over a decade.

The big worry for Georgian economic decision makers is that inflation will start creeping up.

At its last meeting on interest rates in December, the Central Bank elected to keep the key rate unchanged. The Central Bank chief, Giorgi Kadagidze, said that if there was any hint of inflationary pressure appearing he would raise interest rates.

Georgia had been less affected by the turmoil in Russia’s economy and the drop in oil prices over the past six months. Clearly the poor economic data is beginning to catch up with it.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Chechens living in Georgia feel marginalised

JAN. 28 2015, DUISI/Georgia (The Conway Bulletin) —- The Pankisi Gorge lies in Georgia in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains. It has gained some infamy over the past decade as a redoubt for radical Islamists fighting Russia over the borther in Chechnya and Dagestan and also as the birthplace of Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, who is a senior commander within the IS radical group.

Here the Muslim Kists, Georgia’s Chechens, represent a cultural oddity and a possible danger in a country already ridden by ethnic divisions and separatist movements.

Makvala Margoshvili sat in the shade of an arbour in her blooming garden. She slowly sipped her dark tea. This is her homeland. Makvala is the head of the Kist folk music ensemble Aznach, which means voice in English. Nazy, Makvala’s English-speaking niece, summed up the problems.

“For a Chechen is hard to be a Chechen without instilling fear in the others,” she said.

Within a wider Russophobic post-Soviet perspective, Georgia has always had a favourable attitude towards Chechen separatism in Russia. During two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, a stream of refugees and fighters entered the country through its porous border with Russia’s North Caucasus bringing along so-called Arab friends and fundamentalist ideas.

Despite the relative harmony in the valley, the Pansiki Gorge’s reputation for rough and tumble remains. Poverty and segregation are a dangerous mix leading to radicalisation but in the Pansiki Gorge there has been little investment by the central government.

There is plenty of resentment directed towards the central government. Nazy said that people living in the Pansiki Gorge often felt marginalised.

“Even harder, however, is for the others to look at us for what we really are beyond the stereotypes of our troubled history,” she said.
>>By Gianluca Pardelli
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)