One of the most popular topics, among those that regularly attract the attention of Georgian political observers, are real or imaginary projects of the united forces that are in opposition to the Georgian Dream coalition.
According to an article recently published by Alia, we should expect an alliance between the UNM and the Free Democrats, as well as coordination of their efforts in carrying out actions against the authorities. It was noted that this prospect doesn't enthuse everyone in the ranks of the Free Democrats. Moreover, several of its members were strongly against such a union, which could lead to a split. David Zalkaliani, Victor Dolidze and Zurab Abashidze were mentioned among them.
The Free Democrats immediately used information of Resonance in order to refute this information.
"Deals and conspiracies with the National Movement continue to be discussed. But that's not true. As long as I am alive, I will never join any association with the National Movement. The same can be said by any member of the Free Democrats. It is an unrealizable dream of the authorities. They would be better to care about people’s fates, as well as solving many problems that exist in the country," Gia Tsagareishvili said.
Another recurring topic for publications in the Georgian mass media is the fluctuating lari rate. Moreover, they bitterly noted its fall. Now the press reports on the strengthening of the national currency.
"The lari is beginning to strengthen. According to experts’ forecasts, the macroeconomic situation in Georgia and external factors allow for an optimistic outlook. They recommend the public to keep their savings in laris, not in dollars. According to the platform Bloomberg, the lari strengthened on Friday and Monday. Currencies of other countries have been strengthening in relation to the dollar in recent 2-3 days. With regard to the macroeconomic situation, the current account deficit improved by 16.2% in the second quarter of 2015, according to the balance of payments. Tourism revenues and transfers, which played a positive role to finance the budget deficit, also increased,’’ Resonance reports.
"In the near future the lari is to continue to strengthen. If we analyze the representations of the fundamental macroeconomic parameters, the strengthening of the lari is logical. It should be noted that the Georgian economy doesn’t always pursue the course of this process. The rate of the dollar against the currencies of other countries also affects this process. The US Federal Reserve system kept the refinancing rate unchanged. This step forced the dollar to be devalued. In recent days, the currency of various countries have been strengthening their rate against the dollar. The Georgian lari will also follow this trend. In addition, according to the e-currency trading we can see increasing demand for the lari. Commercial banks have reserves of dollars and now they are selling them gradually. This means that the rate is beginning to strengthen ... According to the performance of Georgia, the crisis hasn’t affected them. According to the forecast of the World Bank, the economy is to increase in 2016-2017. I believe that 2015 was the most difficult and the next year the financial situation will be better. Therefore, the most reasonable step for the population is to have deposited savings in laris instead of dollars,’’ the Chairman of the Association of Microfinance Organizations Archil Bakuradze said.
Journalists don’t forget about such a topic as the Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia. Optimistic information has begun to appear in publications for the first time in a long period of time. The reason for this was a statement by the Minister of Defense Tina Khidasheli after the results of the NATO meeting about the possible accession of the republic to the organization, bypassing the stage of MAP.
She is optimistic and expects that Georgia will have a decision at the Warsaw summit, which should be simple, easily perceptible, easily understandable, and not admitting any manipulation or ambiguous interpretation. "The main thing is that we have significantly different relations and overcome barriers that existed in relations between NATO and Georgia," the Minister of Defence of Georgia said. The encouraging statement was made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who noted that NATO and Georgia have achieved great success last year. "We opened a new training center, where the first training sessions have taken place recently," he said, adding that "the NATO leaders are bleating about close cooperation with Georgia next year,’’ Resonance reports.
‘‘The December ministerial is likely to make a step towards its extension.’’ Experts associate the optimistic statement by the Defence Minister of Georgia with the public statements of representatives of NATO. At the same time, they don’t exclude that the minister is making statements on the basis of unofficial promises. Therefore, he dares to reassurу the population. According to them, the international and regional processes will seriously affect the decision of the alliance. Experts find difficulty in saying whether it brings positive or negative impact. They agree with the opinion that NATO could take a decision on Georgia before the summit," the newspaper reports.
Finally, those Georgian media which carefully watch the Middle East couldn’t help commenting on the terrorist attack in Ankara on Saturday. In this regard, they wondered what the probability of such events in Georgia is.
"The probability of terrorist attacks in Georgia is quite high, because we have seen what happened in Turkey. This is the beginning, supposedly attacks can take place in Russia and those countries that are involved in the fight against the caliphate. It can happen in our country, as we are involved in this global war of the fourth generation. In addition, we participate in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and we should not forget that the Taliban are one of the main partners of ISIS. There are many ways to organize a terrorist attack: occupation of buildings, sabotage, cyber attacks and so on. By the way, Georgia was a victim of a cyber attack, but nobody paid attention. Although today cyberterrorism is as dangerous as an ordinary act of terrorism,’’ Resonance cites security expert Vakhtang Maisaya.
"If it is divided into different levels, Georgia is in the middle group. We shouldn’t panic. We need to to know the reason for the incident in Ankara. There are many different ethnic confrontations that have lasted for decades. Fortunately, there are neither ethnic, nor religious confrontations in Georgia. On this basis, attacks for this reason are unlikely, but I don’t exclude a political act of terrorism for another reason, which can be disguised as for ethnic or religious reasons. In other cases, serious acts of terrorism don’t threaten us. For example, a political terrorist attack would worsen the pre-election situation in the country. For many years our country has been involved in geopolitical games, so we have been participants in this situation for 20 years,’’ the same publication cites the chairman of the Georgian Center of the NGO Public Monitoring over the Activities of the Special Services, Beso Aladashvili.
