Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia protests after Putin meets Abkhaz leader

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Aug. 7 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s foreign ministry sent a protest note to Russia after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Abkhazian leader Raul Khajimba ahead of the 11th anniversary of a war between Georgia and Russia. Abkhazia is one of two breakaway states in Georgia. The other is North Ossetia. They broke away in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and are effectively Russian vassal states. Only Russia and a handful of other allies recognise Abkhazia and North Ossetia’s independence claims
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin

ADB approves cash for north-south Georgian road

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Aug. 2 (The Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $415m grant to build a major section of a new north-south highway across Georgia. The 23km Kvesheti-Kobi Road is part of a series of upgrades to infrastructure in Georgia that the government has highlighted as a priority.
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin

COMMENT — Kazakhstan and Georgia have a long way to go on human rights

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> Kazakhstan and Georgia need to treat the disadvantaged with more respect to truly develop, writes James Kilner

The Human Rights Watch report on how state-run institutions treat physically and mentally disabled children in their care makes for particularly grim reading.

It cites children, the loud and less obedient ones, as saying that they are often chained to their beds and drugged into a dreamless sleep that can last 24 hours. They are beaten; made to feel like unwanted prisoners, rather than disabled children. When they reach adulthood, they transfer to an adult version of their children’s institution, thus ensuring a life sentence.

There is often no escape.

The report also pointedly says that of the 2,000 disabled children in the 19 state-run institutions, most are not orphaned. Reading between the lines, it is easier for the Kazakh government to take these children out of society than deal with them in a more humane way.

And this is the real shame in it all. A society that can’t treat the disadvantaged with respect will always be held back. This goes for the poor too.

Last week a 16-year-old boy in Tbilisi fell down a liftshaft on the construction site that he was working on. He had been working on the 14th-floor of the building.

Media said that the boy had come from a poor background and that he had spent much of his early teenage years working jobs to support his mother in his town in regional Georgia. The construction job that killed him was just an extension of this way-of-life.

According to Georgian law, the boy was legally allowed to work aged 16 but he wasn’t allowed do hard manual labour until he was 18-years-old.

The dead boy has also become a statistic, one of several construction workers to die in Tbilisi this year. The Georgian government has allowed poor migrants from the regions to risk their lives on poorly regulated construction sites in Tbilisi for too long.

Both Kazakhstan and Georgia have aspirations to be taken seriously as developed countries but it is not enough to build glitzy airports, five-star hotels and successful sports teams. The true test of a country’s development is how they treat their least advantaged. By this measure, both Kazakhstan and Georgia must try harder.
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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

TBC Bank chairman and founder charged with money laundering

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TBILISI/July 24 (The Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Georgia charged the chairman and deputy chairman of TBC Bank, the country’s biggest bank, with money laundering.

Mamuka Khazaradze, founder of TBC Bank and chairman of the corporation that owns the bank, and deputy chairman Badri Japaridze denied the charges and said that they were politically motivated.

Prosecutors have been investigating the two men since August last year over payments made through TBC Bank in 2007 and 2008.

They said that there was now enough evidence to charge them with laundering $16.6m “followed by a gain of particular large amounts of income”.

On the London Stock Exchange, TBC’s shares fell more than 11% to a five-month low.
In response, TBC Bank said that Mr Khazaradze and Mr Japaridze had resigned from TBC Bank Group PLC, the company that owns TBC Bank.

Mr Khazaradze had also quit as chairman of the banking unit earlier this year, when news of the investigation became public.

“The Board has full confidence in the integrity of Mr Khazaradze and Mr Japaridze and looks forward to the gentlemen quickly and fully clearing their names of any claims, including alleged money laundering,” TBC said in a statement.

The outspoken Mr Khazaradze, one of Georgia’s most recognisable businessmen, is known to have clashed with Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in Georgia and the power behind the Georgian Dream Coalition government. He has also threatened to go into politics against Mr Ivanishvili and his supporters have said that the money laundering charges are a form of punishment.

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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on July 25 2019

Another construction workers dies in Tbilisi

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TBILISI/July 16 (The Bulletin) — Another worker in Tbilisi died on a construction site, at least the 13th construction worker to die in Georgia this year.

Reports said that 16-year-old George Beshkenadze fell down the liftshaft of a 14-storey construction building that he had been working on in central Tbilisi.

Campaigners have said that safety measures on Georgian construction sites are notoriously slack. At least six construction workers in Tbilisi have already died this year on sites and in January, seven men were killed in their sleep at the apartment they shared in central Tbilisi by a carbon monoxide leak.

The authorities have said that they will also investigate how the company managing the site where Beshkenadze died was able to hire a teenager.
The law doesn’t ban companies from hiring 16-year-olds, but they are not allowed to do hard manual job
until they are 18.
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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Georgian parliament returns to Tbilisi

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FEB. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian Parliament opened in Tbilisi for the first time in six years after moving back from Georgia’s ex-capital Kutaisi where the government of former President Mikheil Saakashvili had moved it. The modern glass parliament building in Kutaisi has now been turned into an interior ministry department.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Paddy Power Betfair buys Georgia’s Adjarabet

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TBILISI/Feb. 2 (The Conway Bulletin) — — London-listed betting company Paddy Power Betfair bought a controlling 51% stake in Tbilisi-based Adjarabet for $115m and said it would buy the remaining 49% of the company within three years.

For Georgia and the South Caucasus, Paddy Power Betfair’s takeover of Adjarabet is a vote of confidence in their economies and revenue growth in their online gambling markets. Adjarabet is the market leader for online betting in Georgia, with roughly a 40% share of the market. In 2017 it expanded into the Armenian market.

Peter Jackson, Paddy Power Betfair CEO, said that the purchase was in-line with the company’s acquisition policy.

“Adjarabet’s leading brand presence and strong management team has established it as the clear number one in the fast-growing, regulated online Georgian market. Together with our Group’s technology and sports capabilities, we are confident that Adjarabet will be strongly positioned to continue to build on this success.”

Adjarabet is the trading name of Atlas, a Georgia-registered company that had been wholly owned by Tbilisi-based investment company City Loft. In 2018 it had revenues of 215m lari ($81m).

Adjarabet runs the full range of online gambling services from sports betting to virtual casinos. It takes its name from one of Georgia’s first casinos in the southwest region of Adjara.

Analysts said the Georgian and Armenia online gambling sectors were growing and were a safe investment for Paddy Power.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Wizz Air to expand routes from Georgia

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FEB. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air said it would start up flights to Basel, Copenhagen, Brussels, Tallinn, Eindhoven and Bari from its base at Kutaisi in Georgia. Wizz Air is credited with bringing mass tourism from Europe to Georgia since it set up a base at Kutaisi in 2016. It already operates flights to 21 European destinations from Kutaisi.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Swiss government says Russia-Georgia customs deal is ready

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FEB. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Swiss government, which has been mediating between Russia and Georgia since the end of a brief war in 2008, said that “conditions to implement the customs deal signed by Georgia and Russia are in place”. The two neighbours have been working on a deal that will mean trade between them passes through three corridors — via the disputed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the undisputed Zemo Larsi-Kazbegi border.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Georgia arrests 16 people for spreading sex tape of MP

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FEB. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Georgia arrested 16 people for allegedly leaking a sex video of senior Georgian Dream parliamentarian Eka Beselia. Ms Beselia had been head of Parliament’s legal affairs committee until she resigned last month over a row about the appointment of new members of the Supreme Court. She accused the nominees of being too close to former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019