Russia Wants to Build a University in Georgia, Russia Would Pay Tuition Fees & more– 27th July 2023

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 27th of July twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

Let's kick this episode off with the growing Russian influence in Georgia.

On Sunday, the 23rd, international broadcaster Radio Liberty Europe published an article on Dimitri Lortkipanidze, the pro-Russian politician and head of the Russian think tank called the Primakov Center in Georgia. Lortkipanidze said he intends to open a "Georgian-Russian University" and that right now, his organization is looking for an appropriate location to build the university. He said that Georgians would study there for free as the Russian Federation would cover all the tuition fees. Georgian Dream or Otsneba members said that the idea of opening a Georgian-Russian university in Tbilisi was just a rumor.

However, opposition and education experts expressed their concerns over the growing Russian influence in the country. They mentioned that Moscow uses the education system to further imperialistic goals, and if Tbilisi grants permission to construct the university, the world will think Georgia is siding with Russia.

Speaking of pro-Russian organizations.

On Thursday, the 20th, a group of six Members of the European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBTIQ rights has jointly written a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, Helena Dalli, Commissioner for Equality of the EU, and Paweł Herczyński, EU Ambassador to Georgia. The letter expresses their concern and condemnation of the attacks that occurred during the Tbilisi Pride festival in July. The MEPs urged the EU officials to take action and impose sanctions on the Georgian pro-Russian ultra-conservative group Alt-Info and their leader, Konstantin Morgoshia, who was among the groups responsible for the violent attacks.

Important news on inter-banking relations with Russia.

On Friday the 21st, all major Georgian banks, including TBC Bank, Liberty Bank, the Bank of Georgia, among others, stopped using Unistream, a Russian payment system. A popular microfinance organization in Georgia that receives foreign remittances called Rico Credit also reported that it had discontinued using Unistream. On Wednesday, the 26th, Georgian banks CartuBank, Terabank, and the Georgian branch of Kazakhstan's Halyk Bank ceased transferring money using Unistream. These decisions came after U.S. sanctions aimed at making it harder for Russia to access the global financial system. Through twenty twenty-two and the first half of twenty twenty-three, Unistream transferred 1.8 billion U.S. dollars to Georgia, over a third of all foreign remittances.

Moving on to internal political affairs.

On Thursday the 20th, Levan Khabeishvili, the chairman of the United National Movement, or Natsebi, announced a pre-election coalition with Giorgi Vashadze, leader of the party Strategy Agmashenebeli party. They aim "at defeating the Ivanishvili's Russian party.", in other words, they are uniting in order to win the elections and defeat Otsneba. According to Khabeishvili, the Natsebi, is "the largest pro-European party," and they have now created a "platform for victory" which intends to unite all pro-Western political parties in Georgia to defeat Otsneba. For context, Georgia's new regulations for the twenty twenty-four general elections changed from a mixed to a fully proportional system which requires a 5% threshold and allows pre-electoral coalitions. More pre-electoral coalitions could form. Keep in mind that a large group of Otsneba supporters only support them because Otsneba portrays itself as the guarantor that Misha and his team (like these two parties) will not come back into power. So in reality this coalition helps Otsneba, and Otsneba very much hopes that Misha and his followers will be considered the main opposition since the other non-Misha opposition parties are so dispersed.

Now a little bit about lobbying.

On Monday the 24th, the U.N. Association of Georgia news project Civil.ge published an article covering Otsneba's expenses on U.S. lobbying firms. According to the article, Georgian officials used lobbyists to improve their relationship with the United States, with a focus on foreign security aid and investment. The article says that Otsneba has hired lobbying firms to influence public opinion and media coverage in their favor. In twenty twenty-one, Otsneba spent almost two million U.S. dollars on lobbying. The government of Georgia paid 805,000 US dollars to Chartwell Strategy Group, LLC, to strengthen bilateral relations between Georgia and the United States. While Otsneba paid DCI Group AZ, LLC, one million U.S. dollars to shape U.S. public opinion about the party and paid the media to show "the Georgian Dream Party's commitment to democracy." Predictably, Prime Minister Garibashvili accused Misha and the Natsebi of hiring US lobbyist firms to smear Georgia while Otsneba also spent millions on lobbying.

Full article link in the show notes!

Moving on to some economic affairs.

On Tuesday, the 25th, Georgian Wings, the passenger division of Georgian cargo Geosky Airlines, officially launched direct flights between Tbilisi International Airport and the Black Sea city of Batumi. The company operated the first flight between the two cities. According to Mariam Kvrivishvili, the Deputy Economy Minister, this event demonstrated that a local airline is fully prepared to operate services between the two cities without requiring additional assistance or financial backing from the state. She also said that the planned twelve weekly flights between the two airports would benefit tourist flows.

Some vintage or rtveli news.

On Friday, the 21st, the Government held a meeting with grape growers to reach a reasonable price for the crop. To strengthen the sector's stable development, the state will subsidize Rkatsiteli and Kakhuri Mtsvane grapes by twenty tetris, around eight US cents per kilo, and ensure that the price of one kilo of white grapes is at least ninety tetris or thirty-five US cents. With last year's record-breaking export of 103 million liters of wine worth 252 million U.S. dollars, it's clear that the demand for quality wine-making grapes is increasing. However, farmers anticipate that this year's grape harvest will produce a portion of low-quality grapes due to climate conditions. The government has decided to allocate damaged grapes to state-owned companies to avoid farmers' financial loss and buy all quality grapes anyway.

More on agriculture.

On Friday, the 21st, EastFruit, an information and analytics platform about East Europe and Central Asia's horticulture market, reported on Georgia's blueberry business. The report said Georgian blueberry producers and exporters had broken their record and picked up to three thousand tons of berries in twenty twenty-three. The exports of blueberries quadrupled compared to last year. The report mentions USAID's agriculture program as the leading promoter and supporter of Georgian blueberry exports to E.U. countries. The USAID has closely cooperated with the Georgian Blueberry Growers Association, which unites twenty-one commercial grower companies that operate 800 hectares of modern blueberry orchards in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Guria, and Imereti. Luiza Namicheishvili, the manager of USAID's agriculture program, said that currently, Georgia exported over 140 tons of blueberries to Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Gulf Countries, and Hong Kong.

Now regional news.

On Thursday, the 20th, a group of citizens held a protest rally near the government house of Adjara, demanding shelter. Residents of the so-called "city of dreams" and illegal occupants of abandoned buildings also protested. The City of Dreams is an ongoing government program to build over one thousand five hundred apartments in Batumi by twenty twenty-four. Protesters said Batumi City Hall didn’t give them the apartments despite sending repeated appeals to local authorities. Kakha Shashikadze, a representative of the government of Adjara, met with the protesters and promised to hold a meeting with a group of citizens to discuss their demands in the next few days.

Some news for chess people.

On Friday the 21st, Poti hosted the sixteenth International Chess Festival, "Nana Alexandria Cup-twenty twenty-three." Poti City Hall reported that the festival hosted 415 chess players from ten countries, including international masters and grandmasters. Reports state that the festival featured eleven distinct category tournaments, with a prize fund of 50,000 laris, around 20,000 US dollars.

We end this week's episode with some news about space.

On Friday the 21st, Nina Avdalyan and Ivane Gventsadze, two architecture students from the University of Georgia, made it to the finals of the Young Architects Competitions and European Space Agency's contest with their project called HOAX 3.0. Their unique lunar research base design features a spinning structure with flywheels integrated into it, creating artificial gravity. The designers reinforced the materials used in the base to withstand the harsh lunar conditions and to mimic Earth's day-night cycles, connecting habitation spaces and a central greenhouse to improve the well-being of its occupants.

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

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Nakhvamdis!