Protests Against Russian Tourists in Batumi & more– 3rd Aug 2023

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 3rd of August twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

We start this week's show with protests in Batumi.

On Thursday, the 27th, citizens staged a four-day protest against the Russian cruise ship Astoria Grande, which docked in the Black Sea port of Batumi. Citizens protested against the derogatory and anti-Georgian comments made by Russian tourists of the ship who had visited Batumi. Prior to the rally, the tourists had spoken to the media, and one of them even said he had visited Abkhazia, which violates Georgian anti-occupation legislation. All of the Russian tourists interviewed denied that Russia was an occupier. One of them even went so far as to say, "Everywhere is the Soviet Union, we are all one united country." President Salome Zurabishvili has welcomed the peaceful protests at the port of Batumi, while Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of the ruling party Georgian Dream or Otsneba, described protesters as "boorish." As you might have already guessed, the main slogan of the protest was "Russian ship, go fuck yourself."

More on the Russian presence in Georgia.

On Friday, the 28th, Transparency International Georgia, released information on Russian companies' business activity since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the report, Russian citizens registered a whopping 21,300 companies in Georgia in the last seventeen months. The National Statistical Office of Georgia has only identified the fields of operation of only one thousand seven hundred companies. So the information we have is for only 8% of these Russian registered companies. Of these, 82% of these are in the field of information technology, 5% of in design and advertising, 4% in education, arts, and entertainment, 3% are in trade and production, and the remaining 5% operate in various other service industries. And for the remaining 92%, the national statistics office has no idea what they are doing.

Moving on to international news.

On Monday, the 28th, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili traveled to China and met with President Xi Jinping. The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen the cooperation between the two countries. Garibashvili thanked President Xi Jinping for the Belt and Road Global Initiative, a project China launched to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks and to build its network. He also said that one of his Government's top priorities was to improve Georgia's transit role by connecting the country to its Eurasian neighbors through new and existing high-capacity fiber optic lines and to promote digital connectivity between Europe and Asia.

All this means Georgia is looking for money for infrastructure projects, China loves those and has money. Win Win! All that is why Georgia and China signed a Strategic Partnership deal on political, economic, people-to-people relations, and cultural and international cooperation domains.

Speaking of Georgia's transit role.

On Tuesday the 1st, Prime Minister Garibashvili visited Kazakhstan and met with his Kazakh counterpart Alikhan Smailov. They highlighted the importance of further developing the Middle Corridor, also known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which connects Central Asia and Europe via the South Caucasus. The volume of cargo transportation that passes through the route has increased by 77% over the past six months and reached 1.3 million tonnes.

We have updates on Georgia's implementation of the twelve EU recommendations. Short version, no progress.

On Monday, the 31st, the Open Society Georgia Foundation and eight civil society organizations assessed Georgia's progress in meeting the twelve EU recommendations required for getting EU candidate status. As we already know, Georgia has fully implemented one priority - the proactive consideration of the European Court of Human Rights (or ECHR) judgments. It almost fulfilled two requirements and it only partially implemented seven. Finally, Georgia has not implemented two crucial requirements - de-oligarchization and political depolarization.

More on human rights….

On Monday, the 31st, the EU released its annual report called Human Rights and Democracy in the World, focusing on the human rights situation in different countries. The report recognized Georgia's human rights framework as "solid" with legislation and policies that align with European standards. However, there is still significant scope for improvement in areas such as the electoral system, public administration, gender equality, children's rights, and the rights of people with disabilities. The report emphasized the need for continued efforts in areas such as judicial reform, anti-corruption, and strengthening the independence of State institutions. Additionally, the report highlighted the troubling human rights situation in the occupied regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia can achieve candidate status once it addresses the priorities related to the rule of law, democratic principles, and human rights obligations. Which it has not.

Moving on to the report on Georgia's investment climate.

On Thursday, the 27th, The U.S. State Department issued a report on Georgia's investment climate, which gave an overall positive assessment but also raised concerns about some areas that need improvement. While the report praised the regulatory framework and legislation related to business, trade, and investment, it questioned the judiciary's ability to handle commercial cases independently and competently. Moreover, the report identified inefficient municipal-level decision-making, poor enforcement of intellectual property rights, and inadequate anti-trust policies. Despite these challenges, Georgia is still an excellent place to do business in the region, meaning compared to its neighbors, and the report recognized the government's efforts to tackle these issues. The report also mentions that the U.S. State Department said four Georgian judges had been engaged in significant corruption and banned them and their immediate family members from entering the United States.

More on Georgia-US relations.

On Friday, the 28th, The U.S. Senate approved Robin Dunnigan's appointment as the new U.S. Ambassador to Georgia through a voice vote. He will take over from Kelly Degnan, who has served in Georgia since twenty twenty. Dunnigan previously held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central and Eastern Europe in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, but her term expired in June twenty twenty-three. She has also served as Chargé d'Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Austria from July twenty eighteen to July twenty twenty-one.

Moving on to tech.

On Monday, the 31st, Cellfie Mobile, a Georgian mobile operator formerly known as Beeline, a Russian mobile company, became the sole provider of 5G technology in Georgia as they were the only participant in the auction. Despite requests from MagtiCom and Silknet, the country's leading mobile operators, for an auction without a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO obligation, they did not participate in the auction. MagtiCom said that the Communications Commission violated the principle of technological neutrality by forcing them to acquire frequencies for a 5G network with the MVNO obligation. They are calling for a business-like approach from the Commission and expressing frustration with the delay in introducing new technology.

We end this week's show with some art news.

On Thursday, the 27th, Tbilisi's Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Art launched the first state laboratory for the examination of artwork in the South Caucasus. The modern lab, named after Irakli Parjiani, a twentieth-century Georgian artist, is a collaborative effort between the Culture Ministry and the Foundation in honor of the late artist. The Ministry said the facility would conduct complex expert research on the artwork, establishing its authenticity with advanced hardware, including an infrared spectroscope, electronic and optical microscopes, UV fluorescence devices, X-ray hardware, a chemical laboratory, and a 3D scanner. Also, trained art critics, chemical restoration experts, and X-ray professionals will collect microscopic samples from paintings of many artists like Niko Pirosmani, one of the most famous Georgian artists, to create a technological database required for the lab's operation.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Nakhvamdis!