The News in Brief
Wednesday, March 4
Mikheil Saakashvili - Our main target is to implement anti-crisis plan
“The main target of our Government is the economy of Georgia. Today we’re facing a great economic crisis and face serious problems and many qualified people in the financial sector are losing their jobs. There are a lot of problems in the real estate sector as well. Many of our citizens cannot maintain their families on their salaries. It is the most painful problem,” the President of Georgia said.
The President noted that the Government is striving to maintain existing jobs and protect Georgia from the impact of the global economic crisis. “According to all the experts the next 6 months will be hard for the whole world economy. But we have all the resources to save Georgia. On one side peace and stability are essential components of this process and on the other the implementation of the anti-crisis plan is the main target of the Georgian Government,” Saakashvili stressed. (Interpressnews)
Confrontation between Tskhinvali and Moscow ripe
Confrontation between Tskhinvali and Moscow has become ripe, according to the newspaper Kommersant, which says that this is linked to the control of the finances allocated by Russia for recovery works in South Ossetia.
The newspaper reports that because of this disagreement even the session of the interdepartmental commission which supervises recovery work in the region broke up yesterday. The Russian side said the session had not proceeded due to the absence of a quorum. Hasan Pliev, the Vice-Premier of the separatist regime of Tskhinvali, declared however that the Tskhinvali delegation arrived for the session with its full complement, led by so-called President Edward Kokoity, and that any matters could have been discussed.
The confrontation has been provoked by a Russian initiative to create a special management team in the Ministry of Regional Development to disburse development aid. The sum concerned, 8.5 billion roubles, will be delivered to Tskhinvali via the treasury of North Ossetia.
Tskhinvali will be remote from the distribution of the sums allocated for it.
Interdepartmental commission sessions have been cancelled several times due to the dispute, causing a suspension of the rehabilitation works in Tskhinvali. “As the money is not present, no one in the Republc has been paid their salary since January, including members of the Government. It is impossible not to be concerned about this,” Pliev declared.
Kommersant writes about the ‘emotion ‘of the ordinary people of Tskhinvali. “People sit without work, we have been buying bread on credit in shops for a long time. The weather here has been excellent for a couple of weeks but nothing is being built. The President said that they had to wait for a warm season. The spring has come, and movement is zero. If this question is not resolved in the nearest future, there will be a new war.
“It turns out that this is this case: we have played our roles and Russia needs us no longer,” one of the inhabitants of Tskhinvali remarked in conversation with the newspaper. (Interpressnews)
Privileges for Russian soldiers in Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia to be abolished
Russian soldiers serving in Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia will not enjoy various privileges any longer. As the Regnum news agency reports, under a resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation, the one month service of Russian servicemen and officials in these regions will no longer be considered as equivalent to three months service elsewhere.
The relevant amendments to the defence regulations were made on February 25. According to the adopted resolution, “the Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone and the Republic of Georgia are removed from the list of military conflict zones in which serving soldiers and officials are given additional privileges and guarantees.”
The resolution puts an end to the practice of daily payments to those serving in these regions. However Regnum remarks at the end of the article that “military bases with a complement of 3,700 servicemen are being created in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.” (Interpressnews)
Panteleimon Giorgadze, Communist Party leader, dies
On Sunday Panteleimon Giorgadze , the leader of the Communist Party of Georgia, died at home in Tbilisi. Irina Sarishvili, the Chair of the Imedi political movement, told Interpressnews that doctors gave his cause of death as apoplexy.
Irina Sarishvili said that it is unknown whether Igor Giorgadze(who is wanted by the police) will come to Tbilisi for his father’s funeral. Panteleimon Giorgadze will be buried on Saturday. (Interpressnews)
“The main target of our Government is the economy of Georgia. Today we’re facing a great economic crisis and face serious problems and many qualified people in the financial sector are losing their jobs. There are a lot of problems in the real estate sector as well. Many of our citizens cannot maintain their families on their salaries. It is the most painful problem,” the President of Georgia said.
The President noted that the Government is striving to maintain existing jobs and protect Georgia from the impact of the global economic crisis. “According to all the experts the next 6 months will be hard for the whole world economy. But we have all the resources to save Georgia. On one side peace and stability are essential components of this process and on the other the implementation of the anti-crisis plan is the main target of the Georgian Government,” Saakashvili stressed. (Interpressnews)
Confrontation between Tskhinvali and Moscow ripe
Confrontation between Tskhinvali and Moscow has become ripe, according to the newspaper Kommersant, which says that this is linked to the control of the finances allocated by Russia for recovery works in South Ossetia.
The newspaper reports that because of this disagreement even the session of the interdepartmental commission which supervises recovery work in the region broke up yesterday. The Russian side said the session had not proceeded due to the absence of a quorum. Hasan Pliev, the Vice-Premier of the separatist regime of Tskhinvali, declared however that the Tskhinvali delegation arrived for the session with its full complement, led by so-called President Edward Kokoity, and that any matters could have been discussed.
The confrontation has been provoked by a Russian initiative to create a special management team in the Ministry of Regional Development to disburse development aid. The sum concerned, 8.5 billion roubles, will be delivered to Tskhinvali via the treasury of North Ossetia.
Tskhinvali will be remote from the distribution of the sums allocated for it.
Interdepartmental commission sessions have been cancelled several times due to the dispute, causing a suspension of the rehabilitation works in Tskhinvali. “As the money is not present, no one in the Republc has been paid their salary since January, including members of the Government. It is impossible not to be concerned about this,” Pliev declared.
Kommersant writes about the ‘emotion ‘of the ordinary people of Tskhinvali. “People sit without work, we have been buying bread on credit in shops for a long time. The weather here has been excellent for a couple of weeks but nothing is being built. The President said that they had to wait for a warm season. The spring has come, and movement is zero. If this question is not resolved in the nearest future, there will be a new war.
“It turns out that this is this case: we have played our roles and Russia needs us no longer,” one of the inhabitants of Tskhinvali remarked in conversation with the newspaper. (Interpressnews)
Privileges for Russian soldiers in Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia to be abolished
Russian soldiers serving in Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia will not enjoy various privileges any longer. As the Regnum news agency reports, under a resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation, the one month service of Russian servicemen and officials in these regions will no longer be considered as equivalent to three months service elsewhere.
The relevant amendments to the defence regulations were made on February 25. According to the adopted resolution, “the Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone and the Republic of Georgia are removed from the list of military conflict zones in which serving soldiers and officials are given additional privileges and guarantees.”
The resolution puts an end to the practice of daily payments to those serving in these regions. However Regnum remarks at the end of the article that “military bases with a complement of 3,700 servicemen are being created in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.” (Interpressnews)
Panteleimon Giorgadze, Communist Party leader, dies
On Sunday Panteleimon Giorgadze , the leader of the Communist Party of Georgia, died at home in Tbilisi. Irina Sarishvili, the Chair of the Imedi political movement, told Interpressnews that doctors gave his cause of death as apoplexy.
Irina Sarishvili said that it is unknown whether Igor Giorgadze(who is wanted by the police) will come to Tbilisi for his father’s funeral. Panteleimon Giorgadze will be buried on Saturday. (Interpressnews)