Impeachment & more– 7th Sep 2023

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 7th of September twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

We start this week’s episode with news about the impeachment.

On Friday the 1st, Georgian Dream or Otsneba decided to impeach President Salome Zurabishvili for what they say is hindering the country's EU candidate status. However, before doing so, the party will ask the Constitutional Court to confirm that the president violated the constitution. Otsneba decided to impeach Zurabishvili after she announced visits to the European capitals to lobby for Georgia's candidate status. Zurabishvili, despite not having permission from the Government to make these visits, already met with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Germany, in Berlin, and Charles Michel, President of the European Council, in Brussels.

European leaders, including Charles Michel, have praised President Zurabishvili's personal commitment to promoting Georgia's European perspective. They have appreciated her contributions to legislative scrutiny, exercising her right to pardon individuals, which has contributed to depolarization, and her solid political focus on the EU-Georgia agenda. This contradicts Otsneba's narrative, which says that Zurabishvili sabotages Georgia's European path. Moreover, having the impeachment process started requires fifty votes in the parliament However, removing the President from office through the impeachment process requires 100 votes, which Otsneba does not have as the opposition unanimously criticized Zurabishvili's impeachment and vowed not to support the motion. Probably anybody who can understand this update already understands what crazy cinemagraphic stupidity this is. The same way Misha did, Bidzina is confusing himself with the state. In reality she probably is trying to get EU officials to give candidate status to Georgia and she is the only one who could make that possible, as unlikely as it is.

On Thursday, the 31st, a news website that a UN Association of Georgia runs called Civil.ge shared that the Russian government is offering Georgian citizens free admission to Russian higher education institutions for the twenty twenty-fouyr-twenty twenty five academic year. According to the Russian Interests Section at the Swiss Embassy,—a section the Embassy gave to Russia so the country could issue documents for Georgian citizens— the federal budget of the Russian Federation for Georgian citizens, stateless persons, and Russian citizens residing in Georgia funded the program. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and former president, attributes these changes to the "pragmatic policy" of the current Georgian leadership towards Moscow, meaning Otsneba’s policy not to join Western sanctions against Russia and a welcoming visa-free regime with the country and in general moving Georgia towards being a Russian colony again as it was from Erekle II until independence.

Now, political news.

On Wednesday, the 6th, Girchi - More Freedom and Droa formed an alliance for the twenty twenty-four parliamentary elections. According to Droa’s press service, both parties have a "clear vision of the future", meaning Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration. The statement said they united because they wanted zero cooperation with the Russian regime and to replace the Soviet one-party system with a modern, Western-type coalition government. It will be interesting to see if they can agree on a party list.

Speaking of the Parliament.

On Wednesday, the 6th, Shalva Papuashvili, Parliament Speaker, issued stringent security regulations for Parliament, effective from Monday the 18th. These rules cover access passes, visitor behavior, consequences for rule violations, among others. Visitors must refrain from disrupting Parliament's activities by hanging banners, distributing materials, or staging demonstrations within the building. The rules also prohibit visitor-journalist interactions in briefing areas without the consent of the Parliament's Public Relations Department. Compliance with instructions from the Special State Protection Service and Parliamentary Supervisory Service is mandatory. The Speaker can take preventive measures and restrict visitor access for up to one year in case of serious violations. Speaker in the nities Zura Zhvania personally designed the operations of parliament including how transparent it is, compared to even the world's most democratic parliaments. Sad to see this obvious and cowardly retreat.

More on Georgia-EU relations.

On Monday the 4th, The EU's diplomatic service announced that Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative, will visit Georgia on Thursday the 7th and Friday the 8th. He will discuss the country's progress in its European integration journey and hold talks about broader foreign policy and regional matters. Borrell will meet with Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, and Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili. The EU official will also meet with representatives of all political parties that have a seat in the Georgian Parliament and engage in discussions with civil society representatives. Furthermore, Borrell will also mark the fifteenth anniversary of the European Union Monitoring mission's presence in Georgia. The visit is especially important after Otsneba decided to impeach Zourabichvili. In late breaking news, he said that the two front theory, that the West wants Georgia to be a second front for Russia is complete BS. He’s right of course, it is a theory invented by the Kremlin and implemented by Otsneba’s foreign Communications Advisers.

Moving on to an update on the deadly landslide in Shovi.

On Thursday, the 31st, Levan Sherazadishvili, the Deputy Mayor of Oni, said that the disaster zone in Shovi is still under intense search operations to find two missing minors. He stated that the rescue teams keep working in the disaster zone at Shovi resort and in the beds of the Chanchakha and Rioni rivers, as well as in the surroundings of the Gumati hydro power plant. He added that the search would continue until they find them, no matter how slight the chance may be.

Some Regional news.

On Tuesday, the 5th, the Agriculture Ministry announced the launch of a high-tech greenhouse in the village of Tsilkani in central-eastern Georgia's Mtskheta municipality. The greenhouse, equipped with hydroponic technology, allows plants to grow in water rich with mineral nutrients instead of soil. The Israeli Government provided a whopping 95,000 dollars in funding for the project. Otar Shamigia, the Agriculture Minister, Amir Ohana, the Speaker of the Israeli Parliament, and Hadas Meitzad, the Israeli Ambassador to Georgia, participated in the inauguration ceremony at The Scientific and Research Center of Agriculture's Tsilkani base

On Monday the 4th, Kutaisi Municipality City Hall allocated apartments to forty-two socially vulnerable families after refurbishing a building on Gugunava Street. The project involved renovating the building's exterior, converting interior spaces into residential apartments by removing partitions, furnishing apartments with essential household furniture, and upgrading basic services such as electricity, gas, and water. The Regional Development Fund provided 840,000 laris, around 320,000 US dollars, for the project,

Moving on to some cultural news.

On Monday, the 4th, a 100 Georgian writers, publishers, and translators issued a joint statement boycotting the Ministry of Culture and the House of Writers. They refuse to cooperate with this institution because the ruling party appointed the House of Writers' director without a democratic process or consultation. The literary community said they refused to participate in any project that the Ministry of Culture and the House of Writers will initiate, finance, or manage. The announcement said that the boycott will continue until a commission of specialists in the field chooses the head of the House of Writers.

Next up, the economy.

On Monday the 4th, Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili announced that the government had earmarked 85 million laris or 32 million dollars to upgrade the infrastructure of Kutaisi’s International Airport. The minister emphasized that substantial improvements were necessary to unlock the airport's full potential. He also pointed out that the existing runway had numerous irreparable issues, so a new one must be built. Once the renovation is complete, the airport will accommodate all aircraft types, including passenger and cargo planes. Davitashvili said that constructing the new four-kilometer runway will take eighteen months. Kutaisi Airport has experienced a record-high passenger flow in the past seven months of this year, witnessing a 90% increase compared to the same period in twenty nineteen. Additionally, the number of flights has surged by 74%.

Some agricultural news.

On Tuesday, the 5th, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that heavy rainfall, hail, and strong winds damaged a thousand tonnes of grapes in the country's eastern winemaking region of Kakheti. The Harvest Management Company, a state-funded enterprise, accepted the damaged grapes from farmers and processed them at five regional locations. The hail affected an area of over thirty-five hundred hectares, causing damage to vineyards and other crops in several villages. The Company began receiving the grapes the day after the adverse weather struck Kakheti, offering farmers ninety tetris or thirty-five cents per kilogram of the produce. This year, the harvest saw the processing of 16,000 tonnes of grapes, including eight thousand tonnes of Rkatsiteli and five thousand tonnes of Saperavi varieties.

We end this week's show on a musical note.

On Thursday the 31st, Imagine Dragons, an American Grammy Award-winning band, performed in Tbilisi for the first time, entertaining over 30,000 fans with hits from all of their albums. The concert was part of Starring Georgia, a series of shows initiated by Prime Minister Garibashvili to promote the country's tourism potential. The next show in the series will feature Bruno Mars in October at Dinamo Arena.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Nakhvamdis!