JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Alexander Tchikaidze quit as Georgia’s interior minister after a man who accused him of covering up the death of two people killed by police in 2006 was himself killed by a bomb. Mr Tchikaidze, an ex-police colonel, had been interior minister since 2013.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
>>Ukraine’s government has taken on a very Georgian face>>
JAN. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A third former Georgian minister has signed up to work for the anti-Russian government in Ukraine. This time Gia Getsadze, who held various high ranking positions under former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, is to become Ukraine’s deputy justice minister, media reported.
Mr Getsadze follows Georgia’s former healthcare minister Alexander Kvitashvili and former deputy interior minister Eka Zguladze to Kiev.
And this is important. Georgia’s relations with Russia have much improved since Mr Saakashvili left office in 2013 but these ties are still fragile.
What Georgia wants to avoid is the relatively new government in Kiev appearing heavily populated by Georgians. If it does, relations between Georgia and Russia could be damaged once again.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
JAN. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s government plans to sell the tallest building in the port of Batumi — a slender 35-storey white tower with a golden ferris wheel in one side. The tower had been earmarked as part of a new university and was seen as prestige project for the previous government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
JAN. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The head of Georgia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, stepped into the debate on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, images that Muslims find offensive. In a statement, he said that freedom of expression doesn’t grant the freedom to offend.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Georgian president Mikheil Saaksvhili accused the current Georgian government of turning a blind eye to the hundreds of Georgians who had crossed into Syria and were allegedly fighting for the extremist group IS. The comments by Mr Saakashvili, who is now based in New York, were widely broadcast in Georgia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015
JAN. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Irakli Garbashvili flew to Paris to join other world leaders at a unity rally three days after attacks by Islamic extremists killed 17 people in the French capital. Mr Garbashvili was the only head of government from C.Asia and the S.Caucasus to attend.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians are now able to buy Dunkin’ Donuts in Tbilisi. One of the United States’ biggest fast food franchises opened its first two stores in Tbilisi, giving the economy a major PR scoop.
Other than Russia, Georgia is the only country in the former Soviet Union that Dunkin’ Donuts has opened a franchise.
“Opening Dunkin’ Donuts in Georgia proves that there is an attractive business climate in this country and it is easy to do business here,” US ambassador Richard Norland said at the opening of the stores.
Georgia’s economy has rebounded strongly from 2008 when it collapsed after a brief war with Russia. Since then foreign investment and exports, mainly to Russia, have picked up pace.
The Wissol conglomerate, which has close connections with the Georgian business and political elite, brought Dunkin’ Donuts to Georgia. Last year it also brought Wendy’s, another US fast food chain to Georgia.
The vice-president of Dunkin’ Donuts in Europe, Carlos Vidal, said that Wissol had the experience to launch a brand successfully in Georgia.
“Wissol Group owns knowledge of establishment of retail business and management,” he said.
“Together with Wissol Group we have ambitious plans in Georgia because we know that the population of the country is ready to receive the unique experience of Dunkin’ Donuts and to become everyday customer of sandwiches, donuts, bakery and a variety coffee products.”
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015
JAN. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Currency woes in 2015 quickly translated into inflation across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
Kazakhstan can be singled out as the worst performer in this department as inflation grew by a staggering 13.6% in 2015.
It was only in November that the minister of economy Yerbolat Dossayev said inflation wouldn’t surpass 10% in 2015. He was clearly wrong.
Interestingly, food prices grew significantly in Kazakhstan (+10.9%), while in Kyrgyzstan it was precisely food items that kept inflation from going too high.
Kyrgyzstan’s 11-month inflation in 2015 was 6.8% overall, but food prices decreased by 4.8% (Jan. 5).
Geostat, the Georgian statistics service, said annual inflation amounted to 4.9% in December, a 0.6% deflation compared to the previous month driven by lower transport and fuel prices, another impact of low oil prices.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Crude oil and oil product shipments from the Georgian port of Batumi fell by around 22% in 2014 compared to 2013 because of lower than expected exports from Kazakhstan and re-routing through pipelines, a port official told Reuters. Batumi oil terminal is controlled by Kazakh state energy company KazMunaiGas.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
>>Fighting breaks out after opposition MP swears during speech>>
DEC. 26 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s parliament descended into farce when a mass brawl reportedly lasting half-an-hour broke out.
The brawl not only debases parliament and parliamentarians in Georgia but also illustrates the deep and intensifying hatred between the two main factions. These are MPs belonging to the Georgian Dream ruling coalition and MPs belonging to the former ruling party of the United National Movement (UNM), the party of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Video footage from the new parliament in Khutaisi showed dozens of MPs pushing, shouting and trying to punch one another.
Several MPs ripped off the microphones from their desks and hurled them at opponents. The fighting started after MP Akaki Bobokhidze from the UNM used expletives to describe his rivals in the Georgian Dream.
The fight paints Georgian democracy in a bad light. It has made Georgian MPs a laughing stock and portrayed them as a sweary bunch of bar brawlers rather than serious minded politicians.
Both sides will have a lot of cleaning up to do — literally and figuratively — after this debacle. It also, graphically, depicts a increasingly dangerous and personal divide in Georgian politics.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)