Quoting the GHN News Agency, “From NGO People’s Resistance Movement the political unit detached. On October 29 new political unit was established – the political union ‘Resistance Movement’. In the Cinema House (1-st floor, former movie hall) the session of the newly established political organization was held.
Tinatin Mouravi was elected as a chair of the political union. The political Charter was passed.”
Why now, and why such a provocative name? Is there no end to the number of groups and splinter groups (and NGOs) in Georgia? It sounds very much the sort of group which would attract the younger section of the electorate, the very same demographic group who might otherwise be tempted to follow more peaceful options for change. In other words, is this part of a “divide and conquer” ploy, or someone seeking to make a name for themselves in the wake of recent political machinations?
President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, has offered a limited amount of tax-exemption to any business which employs people between the ages of 45-60.
During a broad government cabinet meeting, attended by members of parliament, governors and representatives of business, in Batumi, a “10 Point Plan”, which includes the main social-economic policy direction of the country, was discussed. The above-mentioned project includes an action plan for solving the unemployment issue and modernizing the country. The document will be renewed every 6 months.
Sustaining macroeconomic stability, developing and sustaining the best investment and business environment, improving infrastructure, agriculture and the education systems as well as refining social policies, are some of the main components of the 10 Point Plan. Also, according to the urban and regional development program, an affordable and high quality medical care system should be developed for the country.
The President of Georgia noted that the representatives of parliament and business were specially invited by him in order to discuss this specific project. According to Mikheil Saakashvili, it is imperative that those who are responsible for employing people actively participate in the discussion regarding the social plan and the unemployment problem. The President believes that their remarks and advice will play an important role in the process of successfully implementing this plan.
“I have an offer which is very important to me. If any one of you hires persons between the ages of 45-60 to work for your business you will be exempt from taxes to a certain extent. We have many educated people and they just got unlucky. The first stimulating step for businesses was this – being exempt from income taxes. We will come up with a stimulus plan in order to help you increase employment opportunities for people in this age group in the private sector. We will also assist you in retraining these people, so that they satisfy the demands of the current job market” – noted Mikheil Saakashvili.
Wine exports fall well short of expectations
President Saakashvili also said, during the same meeting, that he was “dissatisfied” with the slow pace of entering new markets for Georgian wine and announced the sacking of the head of Samtrest, the wine agency under the Georgian Agriculture Ministry.
“I want to say that head of Samtrest [Vasil Managadze] is dismissed; I am dissatisfied; we are moving towards [new] markets with ant’s and turtle’s steps… There is unimaginable potential for our wine,” he said.
Saakashvili was speaking at a live televised meeting with government ministers in Batumi in presence of representatives of the Georgian business community.
“There is unimaginably huge market to sell our [wine], but Samtrest had to work little bit better,” he said and instructed new Agriculture Minister, Zaza Gorozia, to recruit a new head of the agency.
He also said: “Question – whether we will return or not to the Russian market – should not be even asked any more… Why should we depend on maniac Onishchenko?”
Saakashvili was impolitely referring to the chief of Russia’s consumer protection agency, RosPotrebNadzor, Gennady Onishchenko. RosPotrebNadzor cited consumer safety reasons behinds its decision when it banned import of Georgian wines and mineral waters in 2006.
Less than twenty minutes earlier, during the same televised meeting PM Nika Gilauri said while presenting the government’s ten-point plan for 2011-2015, that Georgian wine exports increased this year to 18 million bottles against 14 million in 2010.
PM Gilauri said that the goal was to increase annual export of wine to 27-30 million bottles, adding that it was possible through entering new markets, including China and Canada.
Geostat figures contradict Georgian PM’s claims
PM Gilauri also said that the value of exported wine last year was USD 50 million, which he claimed, was higher than in 2005, before Russia banned import of the Georgian wine. He said that in 2005 value of Georgia exported wine was USD 41-45 million.
But according to figures from the Geostat, the Georgian state statistics agency, value of exported Georgian wine in 2005 was USD 81 million; the figure halved following year to USD 41 million after Russia banned import of the Georgian wine in March, 2006; it further declined to USD 29 million in 2007. A tentative upward trend was visible in following years with value of exported Georgian wine increasing to USD 36.6 million in 2008; USD 32 million in 2009 and USD 39.2 million in 2010.
In the first three quarters of 2011 value of exported wine was USD 36 million, according to Geostat.
According to Civil.ge two opposition figures have been sacked from their posts in the Tbilisi City Council, the “Sakebrulo”, sparking cries of foul play and accusations that a political “witch hunt” is being carried out by Mikhail Saakashvili’s party, the United National Movement (UNM).
Zurab Abashidze and Victor Dolidze were deputy chairman of Sakrebulo and chairman of Sakrebulo’s commission for social affairs, respectively. Both are from Our Georgia-Free Democrats (OGFD) party, led by Irakli Alasania, who has announced about intention to closely cooperate with billionaire-turned-politician Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The reason cited by the “ruling” (UNM) party members of Sakrebulo behind their decision to sack Abashidze and Dolidze was “their failure to perform duties”.
The news first broke about the UNM intention to sack two members of OGFD from their Sakrebulo posts earlier on October 28, when the city council’s bureau endorsed the initiative for further approval at the Sakrebulo’s session.
The bureau session was marred by heated debate, which grew into verbal insults by UNM party members against opposition members, Davit Saganelidze of the New Rights Party said. Saganelidze and other opposition members of Sakrebulo walked out of the bureau meeting in protest against the ruling party’s decision.
“We asked for their arguments about why are being dismissed. There are no arguments; ‘we were watching closely during a year and you do not serve people’s interests‘ – that’s the only argument they put forth; I will say it directly, this is a Bolshevik system… this is political retaliation against us,” Zurab Abashidze, former deputy chairman of the Sakrebulo, told journalists.
“We have carried out thousands of meetings with citizens, listening to and addressing their concerns, but they [referring to UNM party members] do not care about it,” Victor Dolidze, former chairman of Sakrebulo’s commission for social affairs, said.
Jaba Samushia, member of Sakrebulo from Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM), also described in the UNM decision as “a political retaliation” against the opponents.
According to 1TV a 39 year old man is undergoing medical treatment at Tbilisi Hospital of Infectious Diseases with diagnosis of “Siberian Ulcer”. Siberian Ulcer is one of several colloquial names used to describe anthrax.
“The man was infected while buying the meat in the Gurjaani market.” (Ed. though, presumably, much later after having consumed some of it?)
Thankfully the man went to hospital in as soon as the ulcer became apparent and doctors claim that his health condition is satisfactory.
There was a similar case in Armenia several years ago when a 47 year old resident of the village of Akhuryan was transferred to the Gyumri clinic after being diagnosed with “Siberian ulcer”. The resident had bought the meat from the Akhuryan market.
We call on the appropriate authorities and health organizations to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the possible causes of the current infection to ensure that the source of the infected meat is identified and that the health of the general public protected.
The Georgian Public Broadcaster has confirmed that they are still willing to provide live coverage of the press conference which was called for by Bidzina Ivanishvili, but doubts remain as to whether this will take place.
A further response from Ivanishvili’s press secretary is expected soon.
The date and time which has been agreed by both parties is 4pm local time on November 1st.
Sergi Kapanadze, the deputy foreign minister and Georgian negotiator, said that the Georgian side came to Geneva for the Swiss-mediated talks with Russia earlier this week with a “new proposal.”
He said that the Swiss mediators tabled “a compromise proposal” on October 26 on which Georgia had agreed.
Kapanadze says that this compromise proposal still envisages two basic components, which Georgia believes are important for transparent trade across the disputed borders – international monitoring and electronic data exchange.
He said that according to the proposal international observers will be deployed on the both ends of “trade corridors” – areas that will be defined by their geographic coordinates not by names in an attempt to keep a status-neutral approach. He declined at this stage to provide details about location of “trade corridors”.
Kapanadze expressed hope that Russia would accept the proposal too that would pave the way for its WTO membership.
Russia’s top WTO negotiator, Maxim Medvedkov, said Moscow would require several days to elaborate its position on the Swiss proposal.
“We will be able to make a response next week,” Itar-Tass news agency reported quoting Medvedkov.
A date has been announced for Bidzina Ivanishvili’s eagerly awaited first ever TV press conference.
Bidzina Ivanishvili’s press office said that an agreement had been reached with the public TV station that the press conference would be held on November 1st at 4pm local time, and would be aired live by GPB for about 30-40 minutes.
The public broadcaster has yet to confirm the agreement but they had previously offered to provide coverage if a press conference was arranged.
In separate statements the billionaire’s press office have again complained about pressure being applied to the billionaire’s Kartu Group, his supporters and his family members, including visits by President Mikhail Saakashvili’s National Movement activists who have been visiting employees of the Kartu Group at their homes and “advising” them to quit their jobs to avoid “problems in the future”.
In another incident one of Ivanishvili’s aides was detained for over four hours at Tbilisi airport, upon his arrival from Moscow carrying some papers connected with the revocation of Ivanishvili’s Russian citizenship, which he had previously said he was freely giving up in order to focus his time and attention to his homeland. As well as the papers the aide was carrying several copies of a children’s magazine called “Energiya Kamney” (Energy of Stones), intended for Ivanishvili’s 14-year old daughter. The magazines contained small samples of stones for children to collect.
Shalva Tadumadze, one of Ivanishvili’s legal team, says that he has been told by investigators that they were tipped-off about possible smuggling of “radioactive material” by the aide and for that reason they sent rock samples from the magazine issues to a laboratory for testing.
“Of course it’s simply a pretext; in fact it was one of those many moves undertaken by the authorities to target their political opponent Bidzina Ivanishvili,” Tadumadze told Civil.ge, adding that the aide was told by investigators not to leave the country pending laboratory test results.
The Interior Ministry confirmed that the aide was questioned in the Tbilisi airport; Shota Utiashvili, head of the ministry’s information and analytical department, however, said: “It’s all over now.” He told Civil.ge that it was “simply a questioning after which Levin was released.” He denied that Levin was not allowed to leave the country.
U.S. Ambassador John Bass, following his recent meeting with Ivanishvili during he listened to complaints made about the pressure being exerted on him by the government, said that the U.S. Embassy is “closely watching the events and if necessary we will discuss the questions with Georgian government”.
The Ambassador also underlined previous messages that Parliamentary as well Presidential elations should be conducted in a democratic environment. For this, many steps should be made. He noted that much more should be done in this respect.
”We are interested to support Georgia in strengthening democratic institutions, to conduct elections in a peaceful environment. It is very important that the next cycle of elations should be legitimate and democratic”, Bass said.
A very illustrative flowchart from Stratfor dropped into the CE inbox this weekend…
As they say, the eurozone (read: Germany) has its work cut out for it.
Whichever actions Germany takes, three things are all but inevitable: an Italian bailout, a European banking crisis, and a Greek default. Any one outcome will likely trigger the other two.
This may look like a “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” type of situation, but how Berlin handles the crisis could be the difference between a weakened euro and nonexistent euro.
Disclaimer: This link to Stratfor takes you to their time-limited promotional campaign page. CE are not affiliated with Stratfor in any way and are not promoting their services here but, fair’s fair, it is their image and they deserve a return link.
Billionaire philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili chaired a rather impressive and well orchestrated meeting with senior diplomats yesterday, overlooking the newly roofed old section of Tbilisi. As can be seen from the video of the conference, the United States of America was well represented with both John Bass, the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, William J. Burns seen getting warmly greeted by their host.
During the meeting Billionaire-turned-politician Bidzina Ivanishvili told the foreign diplomats that it was his goal to come into power solely through elections and to avoid street protest rallies.
“I and my team are planning to deepen relations with the United States and we are grateful for the U.S. assistance [to Georgia],” Ivanishvili said looking in direction where U.S. ambassador John Bass was sitting at a conference table.
“We are also grateful to the Europe and it will be our principled position to deepen cooperation with the European structures. We also realize that it will be needed to mend relations with Russia and we will start that immediately,” Ivanishvili said.
He said that the “political temperature is very high” in Georgia following his announcement about going into politics and also because of the authorities’ reactions to his announcement.
“My goal is to maximally lower this temperature in order to prevent people hitting the streets [for protest rallies],” he said.
“It is also my goal to spare no efforts in order to maximally keep everything in frames of the law and to replace the authorities solely through elections,” Ivanishvili added.
The recent whirlwind of political activity in Georgia began with Ivanishvili announcing his dissatisfaction with various aspects of the conduct of the current regime and his intention to stand in the forthcoming presidential elections.
In response Mikhail Saakashvili appears to have showed his cards early in the game by the ill-conceived attempt to revoke Inanishvili Georgian citizenship, and the motivation could not be clearer, preventing him from either running in the election or being legally allowed to provide financial support to other eligible candidates, which could his wife. This raises a flag over the motivations of the current regime and how it could be so naive to think that such an action could possibly go unnoticed in Washington or European capitals.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Burns promptly arrived soon thereafter in Tbilisi under the guise of conducting a tri-nation visit in the Caucasus region. Nonetheless, few if any can not doubt the real motivation for the visiting fireman. The primary purpose of his visit, planned or not, was to learn first-hand the situation on the ground and report immediately back to D.C.
Ivanishvili had called upon one of the three nationwide broadcasters in Georgia: the Georgian Public Broadcaster, Rustavi 2, or Imedi TV to provide live coverage of a press conference which he wanted to hold but none of them initially took him up on his offer – hardly surprising when it is widely acknowledged that these media outlets are all State controlled mouthpieces, though it is interesting to note that the Georgian Public Broadcaster, perhaps under external pressure, has since announced that it is ready to cover such an event live – and the whole of Georgia awaits for further news about when this event will take place.
In response to their initial refusal to do so Ivanishvili allowed Reuters to conduct and video an exclusive interview with him, portions of which were released and which seemed to feed the Saakashvili regime with enough ammunition for them to hastily load their revolvers and shoot them in the air, proclaiming that Ivanishvili – for all his previous good works in Georgia was, after all just a Russian stooge. He had the audacity to suggest that Georgia needed to forge a better relationship with Russia and he made no mention at all about the Russian “occupation” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, akin to waving a large red rag to a bull and the Ruling Party took the bait by snorting and charging at him with accusations of being a Russian sympathizer on all three nationwide TV stations.
Then, on October 18, there was the “robbery” of 2 million dollars and 1 million Euros from the Ivanishvili-owned Cartu Bank’s armored cash-in-transit vehicle, and the Ministry of Internal affairs announcement that this was in relation to suspected money laundering, despite the fact that this was not an unusual amount for a bank to move around the city in order to keep it’s branches well-stocked with cash. This move was roundly condemned by leading opposition figures prompting the the central Bank to issue a statement downplaying the situation by announcing that they are simply carrying out a routine inspection of the Cartu Bank following a series of recent top-level management changes, following Ivanshvili’s own accusal of the head of his own back of being a government “mole”, something which Ivanishvili had known about for the past three years and to who he had been feeding a constant stream of misinformation to keep the authorities convinced that he had no political ambitions whatsoever.
Two days ago it appeared as though Reuters have helped Ivanishvili to pull the rug from under Saakashvili’s feet by releasing further segments from their exclusive interview which revealed that Ivanishvili DID, in fact, mention the “occupation”, and he was quite clear when he said that 20% of Georgia is still occupied by the Russians following their “aggression”. So, he used all of the big words which the Saakshvili regime have been forking out hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to various lobby groups in America to help weld them into the public consciousness, but Reuters didn’t reveal this until later. Why? Who made the editorial decisions there – Reuters? Ivanishvili? Washington? Or all three?
Ivanishvili has since expounded his thoughts about how Georgia should move forward in this respect and is convinced that reintegration of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia will happen during his lifetime.
This little roundup of current events is incomplete. It doesn’t mention the tremendous (if, at times, somewhat “fawning”) support which Ivanishvili has received from other opposition leaders, and even those whom Ivanishvili heavily criticized in his main statement have been supportive of him to some degree. But, to those who have been listening and watching, the writing appears to be on the wall for Saakashvili and his cohorts.
Here is a man (Ivanishvili) who is calm, appears to talk a lot of sense, and who not only wants to do the right thing for the people of Georgia he actually has a track record of doing so – he almost comes “pre-loved” by the Georgian people, few of who will not have set foot in the magnificent Sameba Cathedral which Ivanishvili had built for them. Perhaps there is a touch of narcissism about his philanthropic activities – indeed about anyone’s philanthropic activities where the donor wants to “remain anonymous” and yet, perhaps secretly, longing for everyone to know what a good person they are – and riding in like a white knight to save your country from “the abyss” spreads that message just about as effectively as you can imagine, though perhaps it could be argued that there are times where you need to sacrifice your modesty in your pursuit of altruism.
Saakashvili himself, meanwhile, has remained remarkably silent on the whole issue. Perhaps he is haunted by his own words which Deputy Secretary of State Burns’ has recently echoed in reminding the world that they don’t care who is in charge, so long as it’s someone who plays by the rules. One could be forgiven for suspecting that they would have a much lighter workload if that person was someone other than Mikhail Saakashvili.
Ivanishvili’s Tbilisi headquarters with Sameba Cathedral. Saakashvili’s domed Presidential Palace can be seen nestling below the cathedral.
Reuters have pulled the rug from under the Saakashvili regime’s attack on Bidzina Ivanishvili by releasing a further segment of their exclusive interview with the billionaire. The main thrust of their attack, both directly and via their media mouthpieces (Rustavi2, Imedi, and the Georgian Public Broadcaster), was aimed at Ivanishvili’s alleged sympathies towards Russia – in particular his apparent omission of any mention of the “occupation” [of Georgia by the Russians].
This latest (and curiously timely) release by Reuters clarifies his views on this subject quite adequately – it almost seems as if the ever-impetuous Saakashvili has been suckered into displaying his impetuosity in all its glory:
“Although Saakashvili’s reckless actions were responded with even bigger recklessness by Russia, which carried out a terrible aggression during the August events and actually 20% of Georgia’s territory is today occupied, we will have to sort out [relations] with Russia – we won’t be able to avoid it – and I hope that the U.S. and Europe will take an appropriate position,” Ivanishvili said.
He also said that Georgia “should manage to find its own place in global politics” and for that purpose, he said, he had already started to work with a group of Georgian experts.
“We are working on security issues as well as on forming a general strategy of development for Georgia. And together with them [expert groups] I will be able to find an optimal way for Georgia’s development in global politics, internal policies and economic development,” Ivanishvili said.
He said there “are many professionals” working in the government ministries, including on mid-level positions and although some reorganizations might take place he was not going “to crash and destroy” the ministry after coming into power. Ivanishvili says that there “is a probability of minimum 90% that we will enter parliament with an absolute majority.”
“Of course the absolute majority of them [employees of state structures] will keep their positions and jobs. I am not going to crash and destroy the ministries. Some reorganization will take place but I think the absolute majority will keep their positions,” Ivanishvili said.
