OCT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s trade turnover with Russia continued to rise as relations between the two neighbours improves. Geostat, the state statistics agency, said that exports to Russia increased by nearly 18% to $612m in the first nine months of the year and imports from Russia were up nearly 15% at $480m.
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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)
OCT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human rights groups called for the Georgian government to do more to fight hate crimes after a transgender woman was badly stabbed in an apparent attempted murder. Georgia has seen a rise in attacks and marches by rightwing radicals over the past few years. Last month a group of nationalists marched through a street in the old town of Tbilisi taunting foreigners.
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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)
OCT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan appointed the CEO of Gazprom Armenia, Vardan Harutyunyan, as head of the state revenue committee, a move that confirms the growing influence of Russia’s Gazprom in the government.
In September Mr Sargsyan appointed Karen Karapetyan as PM. Mr Karapetyan had been the mayor of Yerevan and previously, also, CEO of Gazprom Armenia.
Mr Harutyunyan had worked at Gazprom since 2009 and was named CEO in 2010, after Mr Karapetyan’s departure.
After his appointment as PM, Mr Karapetyan also nominated Gazprom’s express secretary, Shushan Sardaryan, as his adviser.
Gazprom Armenia is a fully owned subsidiary of Gazprom, the Russian gas giant. Russia is one of Armenia’s biggest allies, maintaining a large military base in the country.
Mr Harutyunyan’s new position puts him in charge of collecting taxes and administering government revenues.
Heading Gazprom Armenia is one of the most important jobs in the country. Gazprom supplies most of Armenia’s gas, via Georgia, although the government is trying to secure more imports from Iran. Media in Armenia suggested that Tigran Karapetyan, the PM’s 29- year-old son, may be given the job.
Russia has previously been accused of using Gazprom to pressure and influence foreign governments.
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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
TBILISI, OCT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The ruling Georgian Dream coalition government easily won a parliamentary election in Georgia with nearly 50% of the vote, almost double the votes won by the United National Movement party (UNM) of former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
The result confirms Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire bankroller of the Georgian Dream, as the most influential man in the country.
“Instead of a government with confused members, Georgia genuinely has the government that is devoted to people,” he said after victory was declared.
It also, importantly, puts Georgia on an increasingly conservative and pro-Russia trajectory.
The Georgian Dream has allied itself to the Georgian Orthodox Church a staunchly conservative, and influential, institution that abhors homosexuality.
The conservative direction of the new Georgian parliament was bolstered by the entry of the staunchly nationalist and religious Alliance of Patriots for the first time. They cleared the 5% barrier in the proportional representation element of the vote to secure seats in the 150-seat parliament.
The Georgian Dream coalition, now officially headed by PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili , won its first election four years ago, beating the UNM. This year’s election had been dubbed a grudge re-match between the two parties with Mr Ivanishvili and Mr Saakashvili playing Machiavellian roles from the sidelines.
From Ukraine, where he is governor of the Odessa region, Mr Saakashvili said the election had been fixed. “This election was fabricated through many forms of manipulation to get a final result which would bring absolute victory to Georgian Dream,” he said.
But ODIHR, the OSCE’s main election watchdog, said the election had been largely free and fair.
“Strongly competitive and well- run, yesterday’s elections offered an opportunity for voters to make informed choices about their options in a pluralistic but polarized media environment,” Ignacio Sanchez Amor, the leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, said.
The Central Election Commission said that turnout was around 51%.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
TBILISI, OCT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Dream supporters, wearing their trademark blue shirts, celebrated long into the night on Sunday after it became clear that they had won a crushing victory over their rivals, the United National Movement party (UNM).
Make no mistake, the rivalry between the Georgian Dream and the UNM runs deep. Both sides accuse the other of fraud, violence and of trying to destabilise the country and, up until the first votes were cast on Oct. 8, it was unclear which party would win the parliamentary election. The Georgian Dream ruling coalition is bankrolled by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. The UNM is the party of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who is now the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine.
Now, it’s clear that the Georgian Dream has scored a major victory which could, potentially, end the UNM’s push for a comeback for good. The Central Election Commission said that the Georgian Dream had polled nearly 49% of the votes in the proportional representation element of the election, against 27% for the UNM. The Georgian Dream vote was down only slightly from 2012, when it won power for the first time, despite the tough economic times but the UNM vote crashed from 40% in 2012.
And it was clear from conversations on the streets of Tbilisi just why the Georgian Dream had won. Essentially the UNM, and Mr Saakashvili, is remembered for poisoning relations with Russia, triggering a 2008 war and torturing prison inmates — an episode highlighted by a TV drama series, paid for by Mr Ivanishvili, which was broadcast shortly before the election.
“People value peace more than economic development,” Lika, a 30-year- old translator, said. “The UNM did a lot for Georgia, but the moment they became authoritarian, they lost our trust.”
These sentiments were shared by Giorgi, a 50-year-old war veteran working as a taxi driver in Tbilisi.
“I voted for the Georgian Dream because there is no alternative. We can’t let the nationalists slip back into power. They were violating laws, torturing, even killing political opponents. I don’t want that. Georgia needs the rule of law first,” he said.
And perhaps, too, Mr Saakashvili also damaged the UNM’s chances. Voters complained that it wasn’t clear what his role was and whether voting for the UNM would mean his return.
Now, after the UNM’s defeat, they won’t find out.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
OCT. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Trade turnover between Georgia and Saudi Arabia has increased, the two countries’ diplomatic corps said at a meeting in London. Saudi investment into Georgia reached $100m in the first nine months of the year and total trade turnover has doubled. Tourism is also on the rise, with visits from Saudi Arabia to Georgia likely to triple.
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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
OCT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – During an official trip to Tbilisi, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that he supported Georgia’s territorial integrity. By voicing support for Georgian rule over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which claimed independence after a brief war in 2008, Mr Atambayev was effectively condemning Russia’s support for the rebels.
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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
TBILISI, OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian government unveiled the 20.7MW Kartli Wind Farm, Georgia’s first large-scale wind farm which is considered a key milestone towards both boosting its power production and increasing its green energy footprint.
Kartli Wind Power Plant, a joint venture owned by the Georgian Energy Development Fund (GEDF) and Oil and Gas Company of Georgia, manages the project, which cost $34m to build. GEDF is part-owned by the EBRD, which loaned $22m for the project.
At the inauguration ceremony near the town of Gori in central Georgia, PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili lauded the project and highlighted its importance.
“This project is an indication that Georgia is becoming a truly developed country with leading technologies,” Mr Kvirikashvili said.
“This wind farm will enable us to partly meet our electricity demand during winter time.”
The government has pushed for the development of wind projects across the country to increase domestic production and limit the growth in imports during the winter months.
In the summer, Georgia exports its electricity surplus from its hydropower plants, mainly to Russia and Turkey.
The Kartli wind farm aims to reduce the winter gap and lower carbon emissions.
The EBRD also praised the project and said that it was ready to lend more funds to develop the country’s renewable energies.
“The EBRD stands ready to support Georgia in promoting renewable energy sources and this project confirms our determination to continue making significant investments in renewable energy,” Aida Sitdikova, EBRD’s regional director for Energy, said in a statement.
The Kartli Wind Farm is the biggest wind power project in the South Caucasus although Azerbaijan said it was considering erecting a wind farm in the Caspian Sea.
Power production has become a major headache for governments in the region as they try to feed electricity to growing populations and also replace aging Soviet infrastructure.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Korean company ANK PS signed an agreement for exclusive sales rights for Borjomi, the famous Georgian water. Borjomi, which is one of Georgia’s most recognisable brands abroad, will enter the Korean market in November.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
TBILISI, OCT. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — EU member states agreed to relax visa requirements for Georgians, a major step towards Georgia’s stated aim of gaining visa-free travel to the EU’s Schengen Zone.
The agreement needs to be voted on by the European Parliament but it would allow Georgian citizens to travel to the EU for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
“The Council takes the view that the entry into force of visa liberalisation for Georgia should be at the same time as the entry into force of the new ‘suspension mechanism’,” said the EU Council.
The suspension mechanism is a new tool that will be introduced to allow the EU to withdraw visa-free access quickly if members felt that it was being abused. The EU has said that this mechanism was necessary to give visa-free access to Ukraine, Turkey and Kosovo, as well as Georgia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
