President Pardons Gvaramia & more–29th June 2023

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 29th of June twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

We start this episode with depolarization.

On Thursday, the 22nd, President Salome Zurabishvili pardoned Nika Gvaramia, the general director of Mtavari TV, but she didn’t say why she did it.. The opposition and EU senior officials, including Charles Michel, The President of the European Council, welcomed Zourabichvili's decision and thought it was an essential step towards depolarization in Georgia. After his release, Gvaramia said that he did not expect Zurabishvili to exonerate him and said, "The President didn't really do it for me, she did it for the country she is the President of." Georgian Dream or Otsneba members did not hide their frustration with Zurabishvili's decision. They said it was a political demarche that had nothing to do with depolarization.

On the same day, the European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement presented a report on Georgia's progress regarding EU recommendations. We reported the same thing last week but that was just advance copies. Now it’s official. Georgia fulfilled only three out of twelve priorities, gender equality and appointing a public defender. The country made progress in seven other areas like political polarization, full functioning of state institutions, transparent and effective judicial reforms, the independence of the anti-corruption agency, among others. Also, according to the report, Georgia made limited progress in de-oligarchization and media pluralism. Finally, the commissioner emphasized the need for further judicial reforms, including the appointment of non-judge members to the High Council of Justice.

More on Georgia's EU membership.

On Monday the 26th, Rikard Jozwiak, the Brussels correspondent of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, published an article regarding NATO and EU enlargement. Jozwiak recently analyzed the European Commission's report and found that Georgia must catch up to Ukraine and Moldova to meet the Union's requirements. While Moldova and Ukraine are leading the way in opening membership negotiations, Hungary could veto Ukraine's bid. Hungarians are a minority of 150,000 in Ukraine and Hungary’s leader says Ukraine hasn't done enough for them. So, since the governments of Georgia and Hungary have built up a close relationship recently, Hungary’s leader, and Kremlin waterboy, Victor Orban may only sign off on Ukraine opening accession negotiations if other EU countries agree to grant Georgia's candidate status as well, thus helping Otsneba in its bleak electoral prospects next year.

On Tuesday the 27th, David O'Sullivan, EU Sanctions Envoy, James O'Brien, Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department, and Kumar Iyer, Director General, Economics, Science and Technology at the UK Foreign Office, met with Irakli Garibashvili, the Prime Minister, Ilia Darchiasvhili, the Foreign Minister, and Levan Davitashvili, the Vice Prime Minister, Both sides said they were pleased with Georgia's efforts to prevent the evasion of sanctions. Earlier this month, a debate stirred in Tbilisi when the statement of Ambassador O'Brien's mentioned Georgia among the countries he is working with to address the sanction “circumvention problem”.. However, the Georgian Foreign Ministry and Otsneba members have of course denied any responsibility on the matter.

On Thursday, the 22nd, the board of the National Bank of Georgia (or NBG) appointed Natia Turnava, the former Minister of Economy, as the first vice-president of the NBG. Five out of seven members supported her appointment. However, some experts from the International Monetary Fund criticized recent amendments. They feared that Otsneba will have leverage over NBG decisions, since now the NBG Board has five civil servants, who can be fired at any time, who are part of Otsneba's government. Which as we have previously stated is exactly why they changed the rules, so that Bidzina can appoint whoever he wants to head the formerly independent central bank.

Some good news about the Chiatura miners' protests.

On Saturday, the 25th Georgian Trade Unions Confederation, or GTUC, announced that they successfully negotiated a pay increase for striking miners with the company Georgian Manganese. The miners had been demanding an increase in their salary, safety at the workplace, improved insurance conditions, among others, for over two weeks. The GTUC trade union has also promised to address the other requests of the miners at some point. The Chiatura mine will resume its operations on the 1st of July

Continuing with attacks on the opposition.

On Tuesday the 27th, a person attacked Misha Mshvildadze, one of the founders of opposition channel Formula TV and a popular comedy show host. According to his statement to Formula TV, the attacker punched Msvildadze in the face at the entrance of a Carrefour shop. The offender then continued to assault him while he was on the ground. Opposition representatives have condemned the incident and blamed Otsneba for orchestrating attacks on the opposition. The interior ministry has reportedly initiated an investigation into the matter. The next day, the United National Movement, or Natsebi, said that unidentified individuals viciously assaulted Davit Osikmishvili, a Natsebi employee while waiting for his three young children near his house. The party’s statement said that "The Russian Dream, Ivanishvili, Kobakhidze, and Gharibashvili have openly announced death and violence to us!".

Moving on to some regional news.

On Saturday, the 25th, sailors and students from Batumi State Maritime Academy in Georgia's Black Sea city of Batumi celebrated the annual International Day of the Seafarer. They marched from the city's seaside boulevard strip to its port with a brass band performance. On the occasion, Levan Davitashvili, Minister of Economy, inaugurated a new simulation space at the Batumi State Maritime Academy. This space meets international standards and provides students with a practical training opportunity.

On Friday, the 23rd, the Zugdidi District Court found guilty and sentenced Badri Esebua to thirteen years in prison. Back in twenty twenty, he committed a daring bank robbery and took forty-three hostages in the Zugdidi department of the Bank of Georgia. He had firearms and hand grenades. As ransom he demanded half a million dollars and then he escaped justice. After over two years of investigation, authorities caught him in February twenty twenty-three.

Some political news from occupied Abkhazia.

The organization "Ayaaira" ("Victory"), consisting of veterans and citizens of Abkhazia, expressed their mistrust towards the policies of the government and the President. They took the initiative to hold a referendum. According to the "Ayashara" agency, they approached the Central Election Commission of Abkhazia to register their initiative group for conducting a referendum. The initiative group, consisting of thirty members, aims to ask the following question in the referendum: "Do you believe it is necessary to hold early presidential elections in the Republic of Abkhazia?" As per the "legislation" in occupied Abkhazia, citizens can conduct a referendum. In this case, the initiative group must include at least twenty-five individuals and collect at least 10,000 signatures to request the referendum formally.

On Tuesday the 27th, Kakhi Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi, during a municipal government meeting announced a renovation project of the Peace Bridge located in the heart of Tbilisi. He said that damage to the concrete surface of the pier on Mtkvari’s left banks triggered the need for rehabilitation. The restoration work will temporarily close the bridge to allow for the restoration of the stairwell and lighting system. The estimated cost of the renovation project is 1,4 million laris, about 550,000 US dollars, and will be completed in August.

We’ll end with some big economic news.

On Thursday, the 22nd, according to a report from "Interfax-Azerbaijan", Marat Karabayev, the Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan, announced that Georgia would soon join a joint logistics company created by the Prime Ministers of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in Baku. The company will operate along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (or TITR) and aims to simplify cargo transportation procedures between China and Europe. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia will work together to unify tariffs and handle all cargoes on TITR, with the new company's activities expected to decrease delivery times from fifty-three days to eighteen days this year and eventually to fifteen or as low as ten days.

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

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Nakhvamdis!