Salome Zurabishvili (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Georgia’s President Salome Zurabishvili has found herself at odds with the ruling Georgian Dream party over their decision to deny her a permanent seat on the country’s new National Security Council (NSC). Meanwhile, a former deputy secretary of the NSC told OC Media that this was not the biggest problem with the new council, and warned of the ‘excessive powers’ it’s new head may wield. [Read more…]
Eka Beselia (Tabula)
At least four MPs from Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party have threatened to leave the party, including the influential former legal affairs committee chair Eka Beselia. The split has occurred over a list of candidates for Georgia’s Supreme Court who critics say are part of a ‘clan’ within the judiciary.
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Bidzina Ivanishvili (Imedi TV)
In a TV interview broadcast on Tuesday night, Georgian Dream chair Bidzina Ivanishvili called the results of 28 October’s vote a ‘cold shower’ for the ruling party, and again vowed to make it right within a year. [Read more…]
Mamuka Bakhtadze (/OC Media)
Georgia’s Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has announced plans to write off ₾1.5 billion ($570 million) in unpaid loans for ‘over 600,000’ people blacklisted by Georgian banks. [Read more…]
Grigol Vashadze (Facebook)
The opposition candidate in Georgia’s second round presidential election, the United National Movement’s (UNM) Grigol Vashadze, has promised snap parliamentary elections if elected. Meanwhile, chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili promised ‘remarkable’ changes ‘within a year’. [Read more…]
Bidzina Ivanishvili (ipress.ge)
The chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has rejected accusations of involvement in a state racket against businesses, saying he met Omega Group director Zaza Okuashvili as a businessman. In an interview on Tuesday evening with three TV journalists, Ivanishvili said Okuashvili started blackmailing the government because he didn’t want to pay his tax debts. [Read more…]
Sergey Shamba (Dmitry Lebedev / Kommersant)
Former Prime Minister of Abkhazia, Sergey Shamba, has said that there is a need for more dialogue between Georgia and Abkhazia, and that it was time to think about a ‘common future’ as neighbours. Shamba, who served as PM from 2010–2011 as well as foreign minister from 2004-2010, made the comments in an interview published on 13 August with Echo of Moscow. [Read more…]
Bidzina Ivanishvili (1tv)
Two of Georgia’s banks, Bank of Georgia and TBC, have ‘eaten up the whole country’, according to the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream Party, Bidzina Ivanishvili. In an interview Tuesday with the Georgian Public Broadcaster, Ivanishvili discussed his discord with former Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, poverty in Georgia, the Khorava Street murder investigation, and the next president. [Read more…]
Giorgi Kvirikashvili (Facebook)
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili resigned on Wednesday over disagreements within the ruling Georgian Dream party. During his resignation speech, he said he disagreed over several ‘fundamental issues’ with party chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili. [Read more…]
Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Bidzina Ivanishivli, Kakha Kaladze (/Georgian Dream)
On 11 May, Georgian Dream elected former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili as its chairman, formalising his return to the Georgian political scene. His comeback follows reports of intra-party tensions and continued allegations of Ivanishvili’s informal rule after his resignation and official retirement from politics in late 2013. [Read more…]
