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The News in Brief

Friday, May 3
Ruslan Abashidze - New Chairman of Abkhazia’s Government in Exile

Acting Chairman of the legitimate government of Abkhazia, Vakhtang Kolbaia officially applied to the Supreme Council of Abkhazia to resign. Most deputies of the Supreme Council supported Ruslan Abashidze's candidacy for the opening position. Government of Abkhazia in exile is situated in Tbilisi. Occupied region of Abkhazia has declared independence, recognized by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, and Syria. Even though currently region is not under Georgia’s control, the Georgian government and majority of the international community consider Abkhazia to be part of Georgia.

New chairman Abashidze previously served as Deputy State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality. In 2015-2018 he managed Primera Gold and Residence, in the years 1996-2014 he served at different positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As Abashidze stated, his main message to Abkhaz people will be the call for unification. The new acting head will name his cabinet members and present his action plan in the coming days after appointment.



Currency Exchange Offices closed in Tbilisi Tourist Zones

Twenty-five currency exchange offices were closed and 10 were fined in Georgia’s capital city of Tbilisi for not abiding by the rule of registration and regulations set by the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) in 2016. Since January 2018, 189 currency exchange offices were closed, 77 of them violated NBG’s regulations. The reason why NBG cancels registration of exchange offices consists of various violations: manipulating foreign exchange rates and misleading customers by not providing them with information about exchange rates, commission fees and their right to cancel the operation in 30 minutes if amount of money is not worth more than 5 000 Gels; poorly arranged video-monitoring systems; absence of inner-control mechanisms; poor implementation of identification-verification processes and more.

The NBG plans to continue monitoring the currency exchange offices in the country in order to avoid such incidences and protect the rights of customers.



Free Passports for Georgians Residing Abroad

Georgians living abroad with expired passports should appeal to diplomatic representations or consulates of Georgia for registration. They will receive passports for free in May. Minors or adults who received biometric passports earlier can apply online. The process has no age limitations.

Generally, the cost of a passport is $130 and takes 45 calendar days to be issued in the diplomatic representations or consulates of Georgia.
(By Natalia Kochiashvili)