The Daily Beat: 27 April
Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau is visiting Georgia, where he has already met with President Salome Zurabishvili, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, and his Georgian counterpart, Ilia Darchiashvili. The high-level talks in Tbilisi focused on bilateral cooperation, trade, Georgia’s EU and NATO integration, regional security challenges, and Saakashvili’s troubled imprisonment. Polish foreign minister noted the importance of the forthcoming NATO summit in Vilnius and pledged to consistently support European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Georgian society, stressing that Georgia’s EU and NATO membership is also in the interest of the Euro-Atlantic community. On the second day of his visit, Zbigniew Rau will pay tribute to the heroes who died fighting for the country’s unity and meet with opposition representatives.
The President’s office announced that upon the official invitation of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, Salome Zurabishvili is set to address the European Parliament in Brussels on May 31. The announcement by the president’s office further notes that the formal request to approve the president’s visit to Brussels is already sent to the prime minister’s office. Salome Zurabishvili’s previously scheduled address to the European Parliament was unexpectedly canceled at the very last moment, allegedly due to the delayed approval by the government that the government denied admitting.
Russian bank, “Tochka,” launched foreign exchange transactions for entrepreneurs in the Georgian national currency – Lari (GEL), the Russian state news agency TASS reported. According to TASS, GEL transactions to all Georgian banks also became possible in addition to USD, EUR, and RUB. From now on, the GEL can be transferred to any bank in Georgia and the world, a representative of the credit institution told TASS, adding that a sharp increase in trade turnover between the countries prompted the launch of a new currency transactions. “Tochka” is a Russian digital bank operating without offices and said to be oriented on “creating an ecosystem of services for legal entities.” The bank received its license from the Central Bank of Russia in February.
US political analyst and former adviser of the ruling Georgian Dream party Lincoln Mitchel slammed the prime minister’s scheduled participation in the CPAC conference in Hungary, describing the CPAC as the “ugliest, most authoritarian, most fascistic, and most pro-Russian” gathering. According to Mitchel, by attending CPAC, Garibashvili wants to make it clear where he stands and signal to the West that he is not interested in democracy. “How can we signal to the Biden administration, to democrats in the West, that we are really as bad as they are being told we are… we are really that bad …and what option might be…I got it; we will speak at CPAC and cast a lot… that will send a message; that is exactly what the Georgian prime minister is doing,” Lincoln Mitchel commented for online media outlet Netgazeti.
Data of the Day
The data released by the chief statistics office suggest an increase in the population of Georgia by 1.3%, amounting to 3.73 million people. The data also showed that almost 180,000 migrants arrived in Georgia in 2022, most of them – 62,000 – from Russia, followed by Georgians and Ukrainians. According to the findings of the statistics office, in 2022, almost twice as many Georgian – 100 804 left the country – as they entered it.
