The Daily Beat: 20 March

Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, reacted to the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s tour in the South Caucasus, saying the Alliance’s “general aspirations to consolidate its presence” in the region “are visible to the naked eye” and “NATO’s attempts to expand in some way its influence and presence are unlikely to add stability and predictability to the situation in the Caucasus.”

RFE/RL’s Russian-language service Ekho Kavkaza reported that more than 90% of people in the occupied Georgian territories voted for Vladimir Putin in “Russia’s presidential elections.” In Abkhazia, the proportion of people who voted for Putin was 94% (38,945 votes), while in Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Putin enjoyed 96.3% (14.688 votes) support. According to Ekho Kavkaza, the data do not include the results from military units stationed in these regions.

Parliament overrode President Salome Zurabishvili’s veto on amendments to the electoral code, envisaging a change of procedures for electing the Chair and non-partisan members of the Central Election Commission. 78 MPs voted to override, adopting the original amendments without considering the President’s reasoned objections.

In a joint statement, local watchdogs – Transparency International-Georgia (TI-Georgia) and the Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) criticized the Parliament’s override of the President’s veto, saying the adoption of the amendments contradicts the recommendations of the Venice Commission’s and OSCE/ODIHR, as well as neglects the EC requirements. According to the statement, overcoming the President’s veto on the staffing of the Central Election Commission will hinder the Country’s EU integration process.

President Salome Zurabishvili held an online meeting with diaspora representatives, calling them to make every effort to open additional polling stations abroad. “Around a million of our citizens live in the diaspora. While only about 17 thousand of them participated in the last elections, which is absurd, meaning that more effort was needed to enable their participation in the elections,” said the President.

The government increased state funding to support the educational projects of the Patriarchate of Georgia by GEL 5 million for 2024, setting the amount at GEL 35 million. In addition to these funds, the Patriarchate also receives annual funding of GEL 25 million, bringing the total amount of state funding to GEL 60 million. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze denies that the increase is linked to the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze decided to allocate an additional GEL 7.5 million to the Patriarchate for restoration, reconstruction, and conservation works of the Gelati monastery. Last year, poor-quality restoration work and the allegedly dilapidated state of the medieval Gelati monastery near Kutaisi became a bone of contention between the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Culture Ministry.

The Economy Ministry reported the announcement of the international tender for the design and construction of the marine infrastructure of the Anaklia port. According to the Ministry’s press release, the tender documents have been sent to the so-called Big Four dredging companies with extensive experience designing and constructing marine works.: Boskalis, DEME, Jan De Nul and Van Oord. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze claims that the tender-related procedures will be finalized by May, and the construction works will start in June 2024.

In a joint statement, dozens of CSOs reacted to the Prime Minister and Speaker’s statements on ruling out the “vetting” mechanism, saying that the “issue of improving the judiciary cannot be closed because this requirement of the European Commission is an important prerequisite for the opening of accession negotiations with Georgia.” Earlier, the Prime Minister and the Speaker said that the issue of “vetting” of judges “was closed” on their part.

The Data of the Day

On March 20, the National Statistics Office published preliminary data showing that in 2023, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 7.5% compared to the previous year, reaching 80.25 billion GEL at current prices. Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (13.6%); construction (17.2%); information and communication (27.4%); public administration and defense, compulsory social security (13.7%); transportation and storage (13.3%); education (18.9%); professional, scientific and technical activities (19.1%) were cited by the National Statistics Office among the sectors which significantly contributed to GDP growth.