The Daily Dispatch is our editorial take on the past day’s news. You can subscribe here to get it in your mailbox. Click to write to us! We’d love to hear your ideas and opinions. Giorgi Tskhakaia has been scanning the news for you.
BALANCING THE BOOKS As the economic impact of the pandemic begins to be felt, the Government tries to perform a balancing act to avoid a meltdown at the end of the fiscal year. Giorgi Gakharia’s Cabinet has unveiled a reworked budget proposal for 2020, angling to free up money to bankroll the much-vaunted relief measures. Increased spending will cost the country a sum of GEL 3.4 billion (or USD 1.1 billion) – close to a fifth of total expenditure. Georgia’s chief treasurer aptly summed it up saying that, faced with the force majeure, “trifling expenses” must be trimmed down to keep the wolf from the door. Infrastructure Ministry is first to get axed – taking a USD 82 million cut, with Education shredding 42 USD million and Defense Ministry 25 million. Around USD 196 million will be saved – nowhere near enough, sadly.
SHORT ARM OF THE LAW IN TSKHINVALI After a bout of fear mongering considering mythical bio-hazards stemming from Georgia’s acclaimed Lugar Center, Tskhinvali authorities are facing a real issue to grapple with. Tskhinvali prison warden was given the sack after six inmates harmed themselves, protesting prisoner abuse in correctional facilities. Popular backlash followed – a handful of locals, likely sympathizers of abused convicts, smashed windows of a private residence belonging to local “justice minister.” Unnerved Bibilov, Kremlin-backed leader of the occupied region, sought to clear the air by meeting prisoners’ parents and pledging to hold the guilty accountable. Little chance for justice to be served in a region that denies entry to all but one relief organizations, the Red Cross.
SNATCHERS OF ABKHAZIA The State Security Service, Georgia’s main intelligence outfit, has confirmed that three Georgian citizens were detained by Abkhaz authorities in the vicinity of the dividing line. Villagers were snatched to Gali district where they now are held in custody, charged with “illegal border crossing.” Deprived of their loved ones, their families pin hopes on good offices of EU Monitoring Mission and human rights watchdogs.
CRAVING THE LIMELIGHT? Former PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who lost his job after falling out with his patron Ivanishvili, has taken a habit of intermittently, but persistently breaking silence. He now appeared on a prime-time newscast and was surprisingly bold, dubbing the current regime as “a one-man rule.” Kvirikashvili also gave a public dressing-down to Georgian Dream’s chair for “meddling in his affairs” during his years of premiership. Speaking of a regime change, he said he was holding “friendly talks” with a host of opposition politicians, while denying plans to cast his lot with any single outfit. In the meantime, rumors resurfaced that former President Margvelashvili is soon expected to swell the ranks of LELO party – after a longtime bucolic retreat. We’ll be watching a Marvel sequel on October election’s eve if old heroes keep reemerging at this rate…
That’s full lid for today!