What does 2017 bring for Georgia?

The political events, such as the local elections, reform of the Constitution,  the strengthening of the ruling coalition Georgian Dream, are among the most remarkable events happened in Georgia in 2017, political analyst Gela Vasadze told to Vestnik Kavkaza, summing up the results of the outgoing year. According to his assessment, the year was calm in general.

"First of all, it's worth noting the local elections. A representative of the ruling coalition, well-known football player, then the energy minister, Kakha Kaladze, won in Tbilisi. "The Georgian Dream party won in all regions of Georgia, which was expected because the political field of the republic has been cleaned up without a negative connotation - not by force, but by financial means. The United National Movement continues to be the main opposition force, but the gap between it and the ruling coalition has greatly increased over the year. As a result of the local elections, the Georgian Dream party has maintained a monopoly of power ", Gela Vasadze said.

The essence of financial cleansing is that the opposition was deprived of money. "The main problem of the Georgian politics is the general weakness of the opposition due to the lack of financial resources. The ruling power has a financial resource- billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili - while other parties are very hard with money, and, as a consequence, with everything else. There is also a split within the opposition caused by the active actions on the part of the power structures - someone was offered something, someone was bought up. "In 2017, we were reaping the fruits of such a weakening of the opposition,"  the expert said.

2017 will be remembered by the first for a long time counterterrorism operation. ”The last month of the year was held in the name of the fight against terrorism. A well-known terrorist Ahmet Chatayev was liquidated in Tbilisi, and several days ago, a special operation was carried out in the Pankisi Gorge 

A reform of the government became an important event. ”The Cabinet was optimised, and the number of ministries has been eliminated. There was an attempt to unite the foreign intelligence and state security service, to which the society reacted negatively. In general, in the domestic political situation in Georgia, the poles of confrontation shifted from the opposition-power system to the government itself, where different structures and factions are fighting each other. Bidzina Ivanishvili still controls everything, although he does not occupy any official post, " the political scientist summed up.