The Daily Beat: 4 March
President Salome Zurabishvili met with the ambassadors of the U.S. and EU countries at the Orbeliani Palace. According to the president’s office, the “Unity Platform for Europe” initiative, the participation of Georgian citizens living abroad in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and the importance of the long-term election observation mission were discussed during the meeting.
In a phone interview with TV Pirveli journalist, the US-sanctioned lifetime judge and member of the High Council of Justice, Levan Murusidze, claimed that the goal of the EU-proposed “vetting system” is to remove judges from the office and replace them with those candidates who are acceptable for non-governmental organizations. “Generally, I have no problem passing the test under the vetting system. They say that it does not apply to all judges. But in fact, it affected all judges in Ukraine and Albania,” Murusidze said in an extremely rare phone interview.
Pullman Hotel in central Tbilisi refused to host the OpenTalks.AI conference, scheduled for 6-7 March, organized by Russian iLab, which has previously partnered with the Putin-funded Skolkovo Institute and many other sanctioned Russian companies. “The decision to cancel the OpenTalks.AI conference, regardless of the potential financial consequences, underscores Pullman’s commitment and unwavering support for the principles and values of international cooperation,” said Pullman Tbilisi Axis Towers in a Facebook announcement.
The Kremlin’s man in charge of occupied Abkhazia’s “foreign relations,” Inal Ardzinba, is pretty sure that Georgia’s reasonable government “does not need war.” “One way or another, there is information circulating, that the Americans are going to open up a second front, but, thank God, the Georgian government is acting wisely; no one needs a war, including Georgia itself,” said Inal Ardzinba while speaking at world youth festival in Russia.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held Georgia responsible for the violation of the procedural limb of Article 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the right to life in the case of Z.E.’s death related to police chase in 2016, ordering the country to pay the compensation of EUR 12,000 to the mother of the deceased.
Revenue Service of the Finance Ministry denied the allegations about violating international sanctions against Russia, voiced during the February 27 hearing of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on “U.S. Technology Fueling Russia’s War in Ukraine: How and Why.” “The U.S.-Georgia trade statistics referenced during the committee meeting do not accurately reflect the real data,” said the Revenue Service, adding that it has demanded clarification and evidence from the U.S. counterparts.
The Data of the Day
National Statistics Office reported that Georgia’s annual inflation rate amounted to 0.3% in February 2024. According to the National Statistics Office, monthly, meanwhile, consumer prices decreased by 0.04%. The annual inflation rate was primarily driven by price changes in miscellaneous goods and services (8.6% increase), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (5.5% increase), transport (4.8% increase), and food and non-alcoholic beverages (3.5% decrease).
