Georgian press review (March 27-April 2)

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Georgian media report on the annual report by the President to the parliament, scandals over the government, the economic situation in the country, and the problem of extraditing representatives of the former authorities, who have been appointed to top positions in Ukraine.

The main event of recent days in Georgia was the annual report by President of the country Georgi Margvelashvili to the parliament. “The President’s speech didn’t deserve to be called a political event. The text contained no significant or important things,” Rezonansi cites a point of view by expert Petre Mamradze.

According to him, the report consisted of descriptive generalizations “which looked like First-of-May mottos of the Communist times.” “We needed precise and deeper estimations, stating the reasons why such a difficult situation appeared in the country. It was necessary to evaluate the authoritarian kleptocracy which was based on the sadistic system of Saakashvili and his supporters, an objective assessment of the situation in which Georgian Dream received the country, what it had to do and what it managed to do; what it did badly for the country in recent times. There were broad terms which are well-known to every citizen. This document has no political value,” the expert says.

“As for foreign policy, there was a message that Georgia should stay on the international agenda constantly. In general, this is right. But it should be noted that Georgia should be mentioned on the international agenda positively, as a country which brings stability, peace and economic development to the region. It is necessary to gain a name as a reliable partner of European-Atlantic structures. Saakashvili and his government were compared by foreigners to a crazy person who holds a grenade and is able to blow up himself and others at any moment,” Petre Mamradze said.

Along with the content of the report, the fact that all the members of the government ignored the President’s speech in the parliament was broadly discussed.

“This is not about Margvelashvili, but about the head of our state. We should respect the country, state institutions, not a certain person. The fact is outrageous. This is public policy which is watched by our citizens. Yesterday they found out that the President addressed the Defense Ministry twice for some information, but the request was ignored. It means there are confrontations between Premier and President. Yesterday we had to show our citizens that we are one team which faces serious problems,” Rezonansi cites Tedo Japaridze, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for International Contacts.

At the same time, he liked the report. “The President’s speech contained interesting messages on foreign policy and security. I should say it is very important to stress that Georgia is devoted to the European-Atlantic course. He criticized the ruling team for a lack of activeness in the sphere. As a member of the ruling team I can say that we show maximum activeness, I mean the Parliamentary Committee for International Contacts,” Japaridze said.

Another scandal over the government is connected with possible resignation of the Minister of Sports Levan Kipiani.

“Probably Levan Kipiani will have to leave the position of Minister of Sports, due to a report by MPs. The Parliamentary Committee for Youth Affairs and Sports is dissatisfied with the Minister’s work. A few days ago the Minister was invited to the Committee for a talk. Kipiani’s answers didn’t satisfy MPs. They developed a special report which describes drawbacks in sports. The document was sent to Irakli Garibashvili, and now the Premier should make a decision," Rezonansi reports.

“The chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Youth Affairs and Sports Leri Khabelov said that nothing new had happened in sports, except for summer student Olympic Games. So we cannot rule out the Minister’s resignation. A member of the Committee Luka Kurtanidze says that the Minister doesn’t care about popularization of his activity. MPs stress that it is nothing to do with personal conflicts, and the issue should be considered in a business aspect. Luka Kurtanidze says that rumors that MPs are demanding the resignation of the Minister from the government are not true. The point is in drawbacks in the Minister’s work, and this is described in the report which has been sent to the Premier,” the newspaper reports.

 

"Our main complaint is that its involvement be higher. There are no physical education classes in schools now. Should the minister be interested in this topic? He must be in close communication with the Ministry of Education, but he did not raise the issue of return of physical education lessons. We have also talks about the law on sport. Previously there was a very bad law. We asked Kipiani why a new bill on sports has not been submitted, but there was nothing he could say. We gave the premier very "powerful" material, which describes all the details to which we pay attention. The report for 2014 did not correspond to Georgia's interests in sport. We have a lot of comments. The only positive thing in the field of sport are the Summer Olympics in Georgia. Work in this direction is the responsibility of the Ministry of Sports. So I do not rule out that the Prime Minister will raise the issue of competence," the newspaper cited the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Youth Affairs and Sports Leri Khabelov.Material about the deplorable state of the economy of the country still doesn't disappear from the pages of the media.The Minister of Finance of Georgia, Nodar Khaduri, insists that things are not so bad in this area. "Let's wait for an analysis of the economic situation. From January we decided to adjust the budget, but in terms of tax revenues there are no problems. February was already active, so we will make a decision after receiving the results of the first quarter. In February, the turnover of enterprises paying VAT (this is the only official data that we do have) increased by 15.5%. This is a pretty good indicator that puts us in a different position. In January, the economy grew by 0.5%, but it is always a passive month. We assume that in February the economic growth will be at least 4%. March is relatively active, April and May will be even better. If we do not know the results, it will be difficult to make a relatively good prognosis," he said in an interview with Rezonansi.In addition, the minister categorically denies the likelihood of budget sequestration. "I want to state unequivocally that there will be no sequestration. Sequestration means that the Finance Minister reduces some articles without consent of parliament (which are called unprotected articles and consist mainly of capital expenditure) in a certain proportion. If any article will be reduced, some of the costs may increase respectively. We are working on it," he insists

"Our main complaint is that its involvement be higher. There are no physical education classes in schools now. Should the minister be interested in this topic? He must be in close communication with the Ministry of Education, but he did not raise the issue of return of physical education lessons. We have also talks about the law on sport. Previously there was a very bad law. We asked Kipiani why a new bill on sports has not been submitted, but there was nothing he could say. We gave the premier very "powerful" material, which describes all the details to which we pay attention. The report for 2014 did not correspond to Georgia's interests in sport. We have a lot of comments. The only positive thing in the field of sport are the Summer Olympics in Georgia. Work in this direction is the responsibility of the Ministry of Sports. So I do not rule out that the Prime Minister will raise the issue of competence," the newspaper cited the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Youth Affairs and Sports Leri Khabelov.

Material about the deplorable state of the economy of the country still doesn't disappear from the pages of the media.

The Minister of Finance of Georgia, Nodar Khaduri, insists that things are not so bad in this area. "Let's wait for an analysis of the economic situation. From January we decided to adjust the budget, but in terms of tax revenues there are no problems. February was already active, so we will make a decision after receiving the results of the first quarter. In February, the turnover of enterprises paying VAT (this is the only official data that we do have) increased by 15.5%. This is a pretty good indicator that puts us in a different position. In January, the economy grew by 0.5%, but it is always a passive month. We assume that in February the economic growth will be at least 4%. March is relatively active, April and May will be even better. If we do not know the results, it will be difficult to make a relatively good prognosis," he said in an interview with Rezonansi.

In addition, the minister categorically denies the likelihood of budget sequestration. "I want to state unequivocally that there will be no sequestration. Sequestration means that the Finance Minister reduces some articles without consent of parliament (which are called unprotected articles and consist mainly of capital expenditure) in a certain proportion. If any article will be reduced, some of the costs may increase respectively. We are working on it," he insists.

 

Finally, the traditional theme is possible or impossible in the extradition of former representatives of the Georgian authorities, who have received high posts in Ukraine. In particular, regarding the refusal to extradite ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili announced by the general prosecutor's office of Ukraine.

 

"Firstly, it is not within the competence of the general prosecutor's office of Ukraine to extradite or not to extradite Saakashvili. I know the current legislation of Ukraine well, because we have extradited several Georgians to Georgia in recent years. According to their law, when a person is wanted by Interpol, he can be detained without explanation ... The statement of the general prosecutor's office of Ukraine is a purely political, not a legal document. It clearly expresses the mood of the Ukrainian ruling political elite," Alia newspaper cited the lawyer Shalva Khachapuridze.

 

"The Convention on Human Rights states that extradition is prohibited if political persecution can be carried out against an individual. Explain to me, who is persecuting Saakashvili on political grounds? He was in Georgia, he was not touched until the investigation provided the necessary evidence, he was allowed to move freely. If the authorities want political persecution, would they have released him from Georgia? Where is the political persecution in Georgia, and who is talking about it?" the lawyer wondered.

 

"It's just a cover. I'll tell you who did it - the Prosecutor's Office issued a statement after Poroshenko's telephone call, and he received a telephone call from the security services of one country and he demanded that Saakashvili not be passed over to Georgia, because at this stage Saakashvili is needed on the Ukrainian site. The enemy is not as strong as we are weak. No great state is even mentioning Georgia ... Is it so hard to extradite Saakashvili? Israeli intelligence still use this event. You just send the security services and bring him to Georgia, and if the court exonerates him - let it be," Khachapuridze offers a radical decision.