APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Annualised inflation in Georgia remained a stubbornly low 3.5% in March, the Georgian national statistics agency reported. The biggest contributor to price rises during this period was the cost of heating, fuel, water and electricity which rose by 11.4%.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The China Development Bank will send a high-level delegation to visit Tbilisi, media reported during a trip to Beijing by Georgian parliamentarians, a sign of Chinese interest in Georgia. China has been boosting links in the South Caucasus. It has opened a cultural school in Tbilisi and funded projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
TBILISI/Georgia, APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – – Irakli, a dreadlocked Tbilisi street artist, was in a whiney mood.
“For two years it has been impossible to get real marijuana in Tbilisi,” he said. Marijuana grows naturally across Georgia, and is widely consumed recreationally in the south and northwest. In Tbilisi, however, strict drug laws and stiff sentences make it tough to find.
For Irakli, and many other young Georgians, the solution is something they call ‘bio’, synthetic marijuana sold over the internet. Manufactured in China and the Netherlands, it consists of chemicals in powder form or sprayed over tea and dried herbs so as to be easily smoked. Sold in $20 foil sachets marked ‘Incense’, orders are delivered to a Georgian post office.
Bio has taken over the Tbilisi club and party scene. In recent months, synthetic approximations of cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs have become more widely available, all marketed under the name of ‘bio’.
The craze has not gone unnoticed by the country’s authorities, which amended the drug laws to criminalize the possession and sale of synthetic drugs. But the police have no test for it unlike for real marijuana, said Irakli.
“They can’t test you and they can’t test what you are smoking,” he said. “Nobody knows what is in it.”
Whatever is in it, it can have lethal effects. In February a man died at a central Tbilisi nightspot. He was thought to have consumed a large quantity of synthetic drugs.
“Of course it’s more dangerous, but if the law changes people will stop smoking it,” Irakli said.
That seems unlikely. Pro-legalisation protests in 2013 may have attracted more than a thousand people but the interior ministry is staunchly against any relaxing of the drug laws.
For now at least the clubbers of Tbilisi will keep taking bio, and the associated risks.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt summed up the reaction of the West when he said it smacked of “the politics of revenge”. He was talking about the questioning by prosecutors of Giga Bokeria, regarded as the brains behind the government of former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Mr Bokeria is the latest in a line of officials from the Saakashvili era to be questioned about alleged crimes committed during their time in office.
The case is believed to relate to several articles in the international press last year that criticised billionaire ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili. Mr Ivanishvili, who unseated Mr Saakashvili, has accused Mr Bokeria of using state funds to spread false information.”
Although questioned as a witness, sources believe Mr Bokeria could face criminal charges.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Less than a week after US President Barack Obama said NATO would not invite Georgia to join, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described Georgia as a “special partner”. Georgia is desperate to join NATO and Mr Rasmussen’s comments will have given its leaders hope that one day it will be a NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
MARCH 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Remittances from Ukraine and Russia to Georgia fell during the first two months of the year, media reported, quoting Central Bank statistics. Cash from Russia is still the largest proportion of remittances to Georgia, nearly half, but the statistics said it was down by around 6% from a year earlier.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Members of the political party of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accused his enemies of trying to kidnap one of his allies. Nugzar Tsiklauri, an MP for the United National Movement party, said eight men tried to force him into a car after a night out. The political scene in Georgia is strained.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two sets of demonstrators, one supporting Russia and one against Russia, clashed briefly in central Tbilisi. Feelings are running high in Tbilisi which has firmly backed Ukraine’s revolution and US calls for Russia to quit Crimea.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s still unclear if Russia’s de facto annexation of Crimea has given Georgia’s drive to become part of NATO any real impetus.
Certainly, the Georgian government was hoping that this was the case. But the signals have been mixed.
At a meeting in Brussels, US President Barack Obama said that neither Georgia or Ukraine would join NATO soon.
“Neither Ukraine nor Georgia are currently on a path to NATO membership,” he said. “There has not been any immediate plans for expansion of NATO’s membership.”
This will have hurt Georgia’s government. It has been a keen supporter of NATO missions, including to Afghanistan. On as TV interview the following day, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili summed up the disappointment.
“Of course it was not a statement that caused much of our delight,” he said.
A week later, though, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was preparing to make a speech in which he will pledge more support for Georgia.
These are difficult, and confusing, times for aspirant-NATO members.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ahead of the UN Assembly vote on Ukraine, the Pacific nation of Tuvalu dealt Russia a blow by cutting ties and setting up relations with Georgia. Tuvalu had been one of the few countries to recognise the Russia-sponsored Georgian breakaway states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)