Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgian court jails Ex-MP for property Ponzi scam

TBILISI, APRIL 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi sent the high-profile sisters Maia Rcheulishvili and Rusudan Kervalishvili to four years in prison for embezzlement linked to their construction company Center Point Group.

In a court case that gripped Georgia, the once glamorous sisters who had it all were told they had swindled 6,200 families out of $14m by promising them that they would build the homes of their dreams.

Instead many investors got nothing.

After the judgement, though, there was outrage from some families who said the sisters had gotten off lightly and that the real amount they had embezzled in an elaborate Ponzi scheme was far greater. In 2012, Transparency International, the anti- corruption lobby group, produced a report which said they had stolen $310m.

The judge said that the scam ran from 1999, when the Center Point Group was established, until it went bankrupt in 2008. Its assets were then moved to a company called Dexus in a deal in 2010 that observers have described as murky.

Center Point Group was notorious for collecting large advance payments from clients on promises to build luxury apartments. Hundreds said they never received their apartments.

For Ms Kervalishvili, prison represents a sharp fall from grace. She was once regarded as one of the richest and most successful businesswomen in the country. She had been an MP for former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement party and Parliament’s deputy speaker in 2008-12.

M Rcheulishvili’s husband is Vakhtang Rcheulishvili who was the former head of the Georgian Socialist party and a deputy speaker of Parliament in the 1990s and 2000s.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Georgians celebrate visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen Zone

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TBILISI, MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians held street parties and hung the Council of Europe’s blue and gold starred flag from their windows as they celebrated being allowed to travel to the European Union’s Schengen Zone without a visa.

Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, together with students, journalists and state officials, was one of the first to use the new visa-free regime, taking an early morning flight from Tbilisi to Athens for an academic conference on the future of Europe, before flying on to Brussels.

He hailed the start of a new, increasingly close relationship between Georgia and the EU.

“This is an enormous achievement and a great opportunity for Georgian citizens to better acquaint with the European Union, to better learn the values that the European Union stands on,” he was quoted as saying.

Georgia harbours ambitions to join the EU at some point and, although there is no appetite among EU member states to bring Georgia into the Union, relations are growing increasingly close. Last year Georgia and the EU signed an enhanced Association Agreement that allows Georgian companies to export to the EU.

Under the new rules, Georgians are allowed to travel to the EU’s 26- country Schengen Zone without a visa for 90 days. Georgians citizens will still have to carry documents confirming the purpose of their visit to the EU, including a return air ticket, insurance, a bank statement and accommodation bookings.

Still, most people in Tbilisi were excited by the prospect of visa-free travel to the EU. Miranda, travelled to Vienna on March 29. She said that border controls could not have been easier.

“I travelled the very day next after visa liberalisation was put into force,” she said.

“It was as easy as one can imagine. I met other Georgians at the airport who were travelling without visa. They all made it safely as well.”

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Georgian parliament overrides presidential veto

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MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s president overrode a veto by President Giorgi Margvelashvili over a bill that will give the government far reaching surveillance powers. Mr Margvelashvili had objected to the bill because he said it was too expensive to create an agency solely to increase surveillance of people suspected of aiding and abetting terrorism and also of criminals. He also said, and this was possibly his main point, that it was unclear if the new agency would be independent. Relations between Mr Margvelashvili and the Georgian Dream government are strained.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Georgian officials to hand control of Rustavi-2 TV

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MARCH 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a move that appears designed to outmanoeuvre a directive by Georgia’s Supreme Court to hand control of the Rustavi-2 TV channel to a pro-government businessman, the TV channel owners said that they wanted to give their shares to a company called Rustavi-2 is Mine ltd that is owned by its journalists and other employees. Earlier this year, the European Court for Human Rights stepped in and blocked the Georgian Supreme Court’s order to hand over control of Rustavi-2, which is fiercely critical of the government, to Kibar Khalvashi, who said he had been stripped of control of the TV channel by former Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Russia accuses Georgia of undermining talks

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MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the run-up to the 34th round of bilateral talks in Geneva between Georgia and Russia, the Russian foreign ministry accused its Georgian counterparts of a series of provocative statements designed to undermine the talks. The Geneva talks have been a vital part of the reconciliation process between Russia and Georgia since a war in 2008.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Georgian interior minister soothes EU’s concerns on eve of visa-free access

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TBILISI, MARCH 20/23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the eve of visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen Zone for Georgians, interior minister Giorgi Mghebrishvili was in Brussels to meet officials from the EU and NATO to reassure them that Georgia would be a reliable ally.

Fighting organised crime, an issue that nearly scuppered Georgia’s chances of visa-free access to the Schengen zone last year, migration and terrorism dominated the meetings.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s Commissioner for migration was quoted by media as saying: “Today with the minister we discussed stronger and deeper cooperation in the field of security, fight against organised crime and I can say that I am very happy with the outcome of this excellent discussion.”

After the meetings, Mr Mghebrishvili said Georgia would sign a memorandum of cooperation with EUROPOL, the EU’s crime- fighting intelligence unit.

Georgians will be able to travel to the Schengen Zone without a visa from March 28.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Russians prefer to holiday in Azerbaijan and Georgia

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TBILISI, MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Baku and Tbilisi are among the top five destinations for Moscovites to choose to holiday in during this year’s spring break in April/May, the Vestnik Kavkaza website reported by quoting the RoomGuru.ru hotel and apartment booking website.

The data, based on bookings made for April 29 – May 10, may be anecdotal but they are more evidence of the growing popularity of both cities as tourist destinations for Russians. Both Baku and Tbilisi represent far cheaper options compared to Europe and are almost certain to guarantee sun, an important draw for Moscovites breaking out of a long cold winter.

Russians have also steered away from holidaying in Europe since sanctions were introduced in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. This, combined with a collapse in oil prices, triggered a recession which has reduced Russians’ spending power.

Maya Lomidze from the Association of Russian Tour Operators, told Vestnik Kavkaza that it was no coincidence that Baku and Tbilisi had grown in popularity.

“Azerbaijan and Georgia are actively developing inbound tourism, creating comfortable conditions for tourists and the potential for this is far from being exhausted,” she was quoted as saying.

Georgia’s tourism board has been working hard to try to entice Russians back to the country after direct flights were resumed in 2014, after being scrapped in 2008 during a war between the two neighbours.

The Georgian tourism agency said that just over 1m Russians visited Georgia in 2016, figures don’t distinguish between tourist and business trips, a 12% rise on 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Georgian presidents daughter complains of drug bust

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MARCH 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The daughter of Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Ana, accused police of planting drugs on one of her close friends as a way of incriminating her father. Police detained Mikheil Tatarashvili, the friend, earlier in March, apparently in possession of 18 pills, described as opiates. Police have denied the allegations that they planted drugs on Mr Tatarashvili. Relations at the top of the Georgian political spectrum between the Georgian Dream coalition government and Mr Margvelashvili, elected as Georgia’s president in 2013 on a Georgian Dream ticket, are strained.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Georgian government to move ministries out of town

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MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s government announced plans to build a so-called Government City on the outskirts of Tbilisi to house ministries. Announcing the plan at a government meeting, PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said that it would bring all the government’s offices together around the civil service, which has already moved out of town, give the construction sector a boost and free up space in the centre of Tbilisi for new hotels and offices.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Georgian officials mull constitutional changes

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MARCH 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze told the Imedi TV channel that Georgia’s Constitutional Court was close to recommending a series of changes that would scrap direct elections for the president and also replace the complicated parliamentary election system with a simplified and transparent proportional representation system. Georgia has been tinkering with its post-Soviet Constitution over the past few years. In 2010, it shifted most power from the president to the PM.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)