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Compiled by Ernest Petrosyan
Tuesday, January 20
Natelashvili informs diplomats about impeachment

The leader of the Georgian Labour Party, Shalva Natelashvili, has informed representatives of the accredited diplomatic corps in Georgia about his plans of President Saakashvili’s impeachment , Sakartvelos Respublika writes.

Natelashvili stated before the meeting that President Micheil Saakashvili has made an excessive number of mistakes in his internal and foreign policy, which have ruined the state system of Georgia. The country has lost its territories and democracy, and human rights are not considered worth being respected.

“Our party’s Parliamentary group, for the first time in Georgia’s recent history, has begun Saakashvili’s official, constitutional, impeachment procedures. The leaders of the Group of Friends of Georgia should be informed about what accusations are made concretely in the impeachment document,” stated Shalva Natelashvili .

Natelashvili said that no civilized nation would keep a President such as Saakashvili in power. “Neither will the Georgian population keep Saakashvili in his job. However, we prefer the change to be made in a peaceful way, via impeachment,” stated Natelashvili.



65% of People Bank’s shares have been sold 65% of People Bank’s shares have been sold to the British EUROIL company, Sakartvelos Respublika reports. The British company has acquired 24.88% from Irina Jincharadze, 20.18% from Elene Kovalenko and 20.18 % from Starkod Resources.

The sale of shares was approved by Elene Kovalenko, though she didn’t go into details. She was surprised that the sale caused such a rush.

According to data from the Georgian Stock Market 1,085,917,600 shares were sold at 1.2 tetri per share. The price of the whole package was 12.51 million GEL.



Christian Democrats’ new programme to be ratified at spring conference

The Christian Democratic Movement’s new programme will be ratified at a spring conference, as discussed at Movement’s recent committee session, 24 Saati writes. Leader of the Christian Democratic Movement Giorgi Targamadze said that the issues raised in the Christmas epistle of the Georgian Patriarch will be mentioned in the new programme.

The session of the main Committee of the Christian Democrats approved its 2009 work plan. The main priorities of the Christian Democrats are activities to strengthen security and democratic systems, stop the economic stagnation and help business development.

Giorgi Targamadze said that the session of the main Committee had decided to nominate Irakli Moseshvili, Giorgi Rukhadze and Grigol Paresashvili for membership of the National Communications Commission from the Christian Democrats.



David Tkeshelashvili outlines priorities of Kakheti regional Government

State Minister for Regional Development David Tkeshelashvili visited Telavi last week, 24 Saati reports. Tkeshelashvili discussed the problems of the region with the local authorities and set priorities.

Tkeshelashvili told radio Hereti that GEL 45 million will be allocated to Kakheti from the state budget. GEL 20 million of this will be spent on the Gombori road construction, 2.5 million on the Village Development Programme, and 23 million on developing the region’s infrastructure, which means rehabilitating roads and schools in Kakheti.



Georgians prohibited from travelling from Gali to Zugdidi for medical treatment

The situation is getting extremely tense in the Gali region, Kviris Palitra writes. Ethnic Georgians are being forced to take Russian and Abkhaz passports. If they do not obey, the Abkhazians are threatening to take executive measures.

The de facto Governor of Gali region, Beslan Arshba, has held a meeting about forceably making Georgians into Russians or Abkhazians. He has demanded that the heads of the villages submit a list of residents in two weeks time in order to start the process of distributing passports. Local Governors have also been assigned to prevent Georgians moving to Zugdidi, even to visit the doctor.

Arshba has said that it is better for Georgians to die than move to Zugdidi for medical treatment. If they want to be safe, they can apply to medical institutions in Sukhumi, he said. Gali residents believe that they will receive nasty “surprises” from the separatist Government if they go to Sukhumi for treatment.