Protesters Can’t Set Up Tents & more – 23rd Nov 2023

Gamarjobat from Sant Gervasi and Happy Thanksgiving! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 23rd of November twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

On Saturday, the 18th, police arrested thirteen protesters in Tbilisi as they tried to set up tents. They came down from the Racha province, demanding the cancellation of a forty-nine-year forestry license given to David Khidasheli, a Russia-based businessman, without public consultation. The land for hunting farms transferred to Khidasheli borders Russia and the occupied Tskhinvali region. According to the reports, Khidasheli won the license auction in March, paying over 1.1 million laris, around 400,000 US dollars, for over 100,000 hectares or over a billion square meters of land. The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, a local watchdog, issued a statement about the executive’s excessive restriction on the freedom of assembly, arguing that the protesters had the right to set up tents. The watchdog also criticized the detention of a journalist from the online outlet "Mautskebeli." On Monday, the 20th, according to Civil.ge, a UN Association of Georgia news project, police released the detainees.

On to elections, The debate regarding reducing the parliamentary electoral threshold from 5% to 2% intensified last week. For those who don't know, This coming 26th of October, Georgia will have a fully proportional election. So each voter will vote for just one party. The candidates will be from a list and can be from anywhere. Parties that get over 5% will get into parliament in proportion to the percentage they get. But five percent is an unusually high threshold, almost no countries in the world that have proportional elections have a threshold as high as 5%. The Georgian Dream party, or Otsneba, is against the move to lower the threshold because they hope that the majority of Georgians who will vote against them, will vote for parties that will not pass that extremely high threshold. In April twenty twenty-one, discussions about a 2% threshold began, but Otsneba ended them in August twenty twenty-one when it unilaterally abandoned the Charles Michel agreement, which aimed to solve depolarization. That agreement mentioned the much more normal 2% threshold. In July twenty twenty-two, Otsneba said that they would set a 2% threshold if the country received EU candidate status in December. However, the ruling party has now halted the discussions on lowering the threshold, dismissing them as the "subjective agenda of small parties." Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of Otsneba, said that the party promised to support a 2% threshold if the country received EU candidate status. EU doesn't really operate that way, but, you know, Kobakhidze can dream.

That's a good segway into deoligarchization. On Wednesday, the 22nd, the government released a Deoligarchization Action Plan, which addressed everything but deoligarchization. The plan covers seven key areas, including the fight against corruption, judiciary reforms, and anti-money laundering efforts, among others. The document addresses deoligarchization by targeting excessive vested interests in economic, political, and public spheres all in general. The Plan also mentions banning election donations by legal entities, further reduction of the upper limit of expenses for each party, and publication of expense reports of political parties. There is plenty in the plan that is worth discussing, but it doesn't say anything about what is meant by deoligarchization which is about the fact that Bidzina Ivanishvili personally controls the ruling party and, therefore, the government of Georgia and all of it resources.

On Wednesday, the 15th, the International Republican Institute, or IRI, published a public opinion poll. According to the survey, 86% of respondents are in favor of EU membership. Moreover, 55% of the participants said they would support it even if it meant cutting trade ties with Russia. 79% want Georgia to be part of NATO.

On Monday the 20th, RadioLiberty, an international media outlet, published an article on the Russian counter-propaganda office in Tbilisi. According to the piece, Russian immigrants in Georgia and Lithuania, known as "elves," run a factory that produces around 200 posts and comments daily on VKontakte, a Russian social network. Their goal is to counter Kremlin propaganda, advocating for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Russian organizations like the "Fighting Corruption Foundation" and "Free Russia," reportedly manage the operation, allegedly costing approximately 4 million US dollars annually. The "elves" are associated with the "Free Russia" foundation and aim to counter Russian propaganda and present facts that people in Russia don't see.

On Tuesday, the 21st, nearly fifty winegrowing farmers from all the municipalities of Kakheti held a demonstration in the village of Tsinandali. The protestors demanded compensation from the company that purchased their produce. Participants said they gave Saperavi grapes to the company in August and September. The company was supposed to pay them within twenty days of submission, but after the 1st of October, the company representatives are hiding and stopped answering farmers' calls. Protesters said the company has to pay over 2.3 million laris, about 850,000 US dollars, for the 1,700 tons of grapes.

On Monday, the 20th, Aslan Bzhania, the President of Abkhazia, enforced stringent restrictions on International Non-Governmental Organizations and International Organizations that operate in the region. These restrictions mandate that INGOs provide a comprehensive list of locally-based civil society partners and their registration documents, details of all implemented measures, including their financial information, and information of local recipients. In addition, INGOs must inform in advance about their planned activities, non-governmental partners, and any projected changes to their programs. Furthermore, they must submit quarterly reports on the program's progress. Inal Ardzinba, a former Kremlin employee who is in charge of foreign relations in the occupied region, has been advocating for stricter regulations of NGOs, for a long time. Almost all of this is lifted from Russiaś Foreign Agents Law that Otsneba tried to pass in March but failed, due to successful public demonstrations.

On Monday, the 20th, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili instructed the Minister of Justice to develop an amnesty project for individuals who have built residences without proper construction documentation on their land. The decision aims to eliminate the practice of illegal home-building and simplify the legalization process for citizens who own houses without proper documentation in villages or cities. The amnesty will benefit approximately one million citizens, according to the government. People who built their homes without permits would not be subject to lawsuits from the state. Plus, the Ministry of Justice will register their home without long legal procedures. This will pertain to all the illegally built homes until the 1st of January, twenty twenty-four. Keep in mind that many of these buildings are extremely unsafe, use public land, and have been built by Otsneba members and leaders.

On Thursday the 23rd, Orthodox Christians celebrated Saint George's Day or Giorgoba. Saint George is a well-known figure among Christian martyrs, considered a guardian and a protector. According to some historical records, Saint George appeared amidst Georgian soldiers during wartime. Also, the State Emblem of Georgia features Saint George riding a horse and slaying a dragon.

On Friday, the 17th, in a meeting of a Government commission approved the plan for establishing a Georgian cultureal center near the Jordan River. The royal family of Jordan had handed over a plot of land for this purpose last year. The chair of the commission, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, and representatives of various ministries, the head of the Government Administration, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and religious authorities attended the meeting. The proposed center will be built on a 4,000-square-meter plot near the baptism site of Jesus Christ.

And finally, According to a document from the Georgian Ministry of Finance, Georgia faces eleven international arbitration disputes, including three appeals, over a potential disputed amount of 3.3 billion US dollars, or 12% of its GDP in twenty twenty-two. The dispute over the deep-water port of Anaklia accounts for a significant share of the amount. Completed disputes against the state of Georgia in international arbitrations have seen two victories for the country, one partial victory, and one defeat. The government sets aside funds to cover possible lost cases, with payouts of 3.6 million laris or 1.3 million US dollars in twenty nineteen to almost eight million laris, about three million US dollars in the first nine months of twenty twenty-three.

And that’s it for this week! Go ahead and tell your friends about us!

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Nakhvamdis!