JAN. 30 (The Conway Bulletin) – Part of a refurbished ceiling at a metro station in Tbilisi collapsed, injuring 14 people. The mayor of Tbilisi, Kakha Kaladze, said that the ceiling had only been repaired last year and the criminal prosecutions were possible. Tbilisi’s metro network was built in 1966 by the Soviet Union.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
FEB. 3 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian government wants to bring in legislation that will increase the punishments for being a so-called Thieves-in-Law, media reported. This is the phrase used to describe the bosses of various criminal gangs. Membership of a criminal gang was only made a crime in 2005. Since then organised crime, which used to be a major industry in Georgia, has been on the decline. Currently, members of a criminal gang can be sent to prison for five to eight years and leaders for up to 10 years. The proposals will increase this to 10 and 15 years.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
FEB. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) – Construction started in Tbilisi on a 5-star Hilton hotel in the former Soviet-era offices of the agriculture ministry in the centre of the city. The hotel will have 200 rooms and will cost $45m to build. Tbilisi has been short of hotel rooms, especially at the upper-end of the market. There has been a hotel construction boom over the past few years as supply tries to catch up with demand.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 31 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 7.25% because it said that inflation would shortly start to drop. There had been discussion before the rates meeting that the Central Bank would have to increase interest rates. Annual inflation in Georgia hit 6.7% in December, higher than the Bank’s 4% forecast.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
TBILISI, JAN. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia made a formal complaint to Russia over the opening of customs points with the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Jan. 27). Georgian officials said the customs points were another way for Russia to try to absorb South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia refuted the accusation.
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— This story was first published on Feb. 6 2018 in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
FEB. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Ukraine International Airline passenger plane made an emergency landing at Tbilisi airport after its brake system failed. Reports said that the Kiev-Tbilisi flight made several turns to burn off fuel before making the emergency landing. Nobody was hurt during the landing.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 20(The Conway Bulletin) — A video broadcast on the website of the opposition Rustavi-2 TV channels shows the normally-suave Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili waving his finger and swearing at an opposition MP after a fractious debate in parliament. Mr Kvirikashvili has since apologised for the incident but also said that he was provoked and accused of being dishonest and corrupt.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG), which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, said it had bought another clinic in Tbilisi, part of its strategy to buy up clinics across the country. The clinic is the second one it now owns in the Mtatsminda area of Tbilisi. As well as owning a growing network of clinics, GHG runs hospitals and pharmacies.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan flew to Tbilisi for talks with his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili that both sides described as “wide-ranging”. From Tbilisi, Mr Sargsyan was heading to Moscow for an informal meeting of heads of states of CIS countries. Armenia’s diplomacy in the South Caucasus is delicate. It needs to cultivate good relations with Georgia to counter its enemies Azerbaijan and Turkey. Georgia, though, through pipeline politics is increasingly close to Ankara and Baku.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
TBILISI, DEC. 26/27 (The Conway Bulletin) — — Police in Georgia arrested five men in Tbilisi and the Pankisi Gorge who, they said, were linked to the IS extremist network and had helped arm a group of militants who fought police for several hours during a raid in Tbilisi in November.
In November, three militants were killed and one security service agent died in a raid on a flat on the outskirts of Tbilisi.
Separately, the Turkish authorities said that they had also arrested a Georgian national on suspicion of being linked to IS.
The Pankisi Gorge in the north of Georgia is renowned as a hideout for Islamic fighters. It was considered a safe place for Chechen fighters battling Russian forces in the early 2000s. More recently it has proved a fairly fertile recruitment ground for IS.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin