MARCH 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tbilisi’s city council voted through a 2014 budget after previously rejecting it twice. Passing the budget will allow stalled city projects to start again. The council is controlled by the Georgian Dream party; Former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s party controls the Tbilisi city hall, which submitted the original budget for approval.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police at Tbilisi airport have arrested a fugitive Georgian warlord who promised to ignite a civil war in 2006 after fleeing the country, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty reported.
Emzar Kvitsiani was arrested when he flew into Tbilisi after eight years in exile. He had once controlled the Kodori Gorge with his militia known as Monadire, which means hunter.
Under former President Eduard Shevardnazde, Mr Kvitsiani had been governor of the Kodori Gorge but had fallen out with Mikheil Saakashvili and his supporters when they came to power during the so-called Rose Revolution of 2003.
His militia was banned but Mr Kvitsiani had refused to give up his weapons. Eventually, in 2006, Georgian soldiers started operations in the Kodori Gorge to track Mr Kvitsiani down.
He fled with barely a shot being fired.
It’s unclear, with the consequences of returning evident, why Mr Kvitsiani would have chosen to return to Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A meeting between Georgia’s special representative on Russia, Zurab Abashidze, and the Russian deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin has been postponed for the second time this month. Mr Abashidze and Mr Karasin were due to discuss bilateral ties. Georgia has said it supports the revolution in Ukraine, angering Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
FEB. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in France ruled against extraditing Georgia’s former defence minister, Davit Kezerashvili, because the corruption case against him is potentially politically motivated. The ruling is a blow for Georgia’s government which has been pursuing ministers who worked under former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unsurprisingly, perhaps, both ordinary Georgians and Georgia’s government have voiced their support for Ukraine’s revolution.
Hundreds of people protested outside Russia’s embassy in Tbilisi at what they said was Russian aggression in Ukraine. A few days earlier, Georgia had been one of the first countries to apparently recognise the post-revolution government in Ukraine as the legitimate authority.
“The Georgian Foreign Ministry hopes that the new government will take effective steps to meet expectations of the Ukrainian people,” Georgian media quoted its government as saying.
Fairly unequivocal and unsurprising.
But it’s a sensitive time for Georgia to start aligning itself with Moscow’s allies. The new Georgian government is only just patching up the wounds from the war it fought with Russia in 2008. High level meetings have been scheduled between officials from both sides. These meetings may now be under threat.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s GDP grew by nearly 8% in the 12 months to the end of January, the Georgian statistics agency reported. It said a surge in domestic demand at the end of last year had carried over into the start of 2014. Georgia predicts full year GDP growth for 2014 of 5%.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili visited his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan to reaffirm strong relations between the two countries despite their divergent foreign policy. Georgia is close to the West while Armenia is increasingly close to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s parliament approved sending roughly 100 Georgian soldiers to the Central African Republic on an international peacekeeping mission due to start next month. Georgia has been eager to curry international favour by sending soldiers on NATO and EU peacekeeping missions.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)
FEB. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili met US President Barack Obama at the White House on Feb. 24, underlining Georgia’s status as a favoured US ally in the former Soviet Union. Mr Garibashvili took over as Georgian PM in November 2013. Georgia is the most staunchly pro-United States of the former Soviet countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)
FEB. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR said that it was expanding its pipeline network in Georgia by 750km. This expansion, the company said, would boost its customer base by 22,000. SOCAR currently operates 1,179km of gas pipeline in Georgia and has 37,500 subscribers.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)