Press Digest 04.07.2014

Unofficial MAP – are we moving closer to NATO?

A bomb placed within Kote Kublashvili’s Court will explode soon … all judges – with some felicitous exceptions -- will find themselves behind the bars

Russian soldiers readjust borders again***

Unofficial MAP – are we moving closer to NATO?

As soon as it became known that granting MAP to Georgia is not on the western leaders’ closest agenda, our experts issued allegations saying that Georgia can join NATO without a MAP. Some political experts claim that Georgia stands a chance of receiving an unofficial MAP as well as a status of a potential member of NATO. In their words, Georgia will be entitled to the right to join NATO after it meets all the requirements from the western leaders,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“Why dramatize the situation? We all knew that getting MAP was not a peace of cake. However, a great deal of interesting ideas have been aired after we found out that the prospect of receiving MAP does not shine on us for now. President of Georgia’s Association, Mamuka Tsereteli, has presented NATO with a formula as follows: As long as the NATO member states have failed to build a consensus in terms of this issue, can you not entitle us with the right to join NATO after meeting all your requirements? If we achieve this goal, MAP will not be mandatory. As you know MAP did not even exist in the past. Later, it was given to those countries that needed time to be molded as a state on par with the NATO member countries,” announces political expert Korneli Kakachia.

“The U.S. can obviously safeguard Georgia’s security; however, any kind of bilateral agreement with the Georgian side will make it counter Russia. Georgian’s relations with the USA may also be broadened, and this can be beneficial for our defense system, for instance. Whether this way or that, one thing is clear though – today America is not ready to take Georgia under its wing. Despite the fact that in the context of the present policy with Russia and Eurasia, Georgia is an important country, it is not of vital interest for the U.S. that will never respond with military force to protect it from Russia,” states the expert.

“At the Wales Summit they are expected to grant us an unofficial MAP, as at this point in time, the NATO enlargement plan is really not pushed to the top of their agenda. We can also define an unofficial MAP as the package on intense cooperation that will involve all 5 steps leading us to NATO membership. As you know, the Membership Action Plan (MAP) includes: 1. program; 2. Inpidual Partnership Action Plan; 3. Intensified Dialogue; 4. Membership Action Plan; and 5. a status of a NATO member state. As for us, we have already reached the 4th step and are now involved in intensified dialogue with the NATO member states,” announces military expert Vakhtang Maisaia.

“At this given stage, the NATO enlargement issue is not even being discussed. They have, in fact, given“homework” to Georgia and after this homework is done, the NATO expansion issue will presumably be discussed at the summit of 2016,” concludes Mr. Maisaia.

A bomb placed within Kote Kublashvili’s Court will explode soon … all judges – with some felicitous exceptions -- will find themselves behind the bars

"An anonymous source has passed information onto us saying that in the nearest future several lawsuits will be filed against judge of the Supreme Court, Kote Kublashvili as well as other judges. As per the source, the filed claims will concern the tenders declared by the Supreme Council Department of General Law Courts. Allegedly, the investigators must take intense interest in this issue and must bring all financial deviations that have occurred in our courts for years to the surface,” reports the Alia gazette.

“The Prosecutor’s Office must find out how or in what manner our judges as well as the members of the Supreme Council of the Justice Ministry have collected their vast fortune. They must subject the issue of their declared tenders as well as the personnel list of the Appellate Court of Tbilisi to a thorough looking over. The Finance Police must work out what amount of money they have dissipated on revamping the office of Chairperson of Tbilisi’s Appellate Court, Valeri Tsertsvadze, as well as on his luxurious life in 2008-2012. The investigators must also pin down the names of those judges that were gifted land, apartments and mansions for a symbolic price of one GEL. As an anonymous source claims, a lawsuit against the Supreme Council members has already been drafted and will be submitted to where it is due in the immediate future,” the article says.

“Believe it or not, in Valeri Tsertsvadze’s office, they emplaced a huge and expensive aquarium that is maintained by an aquarist who enjoys a rather good remuneration. Plus, Mr. Tsertsvadze owns two expensive cars and … in a nutshell, his official income could really not have enabled him to accumulate such a vast fortune. They must undoubtedly answer all questions that have swirled round those people who made illegal decisions under the Nationals and enjoyed flagrantly boosted fringe benefits in return for this. Thus, the property of these people who abused their power under the former rule must be thoroughly examined,” declares an anonymous source.

“A brand-new car was also purchased for Ramaz Zhgenti who is Misha Machavariani’s father-in-law and who was a member of the Supreme Council of the Justice Ministry until 2014. The same could be said regarding some other officials of the body… We should also point out that some judges don’t even have law degrees and the Parliament must undoubtedly handle this issue. However, this is peanuts in comparison with what is to come. Truly sensational information will be publicized soon, and all judges – with some felicitous exceptions -- will find themselves behind the bars. Kote Kublashvili himself was once accused of embezzling 2 million 300 thousand GEL. However, under the Nationals he easily got away with his terrible misdeeds,” concludes the respondent.

Russian soldiers readjust borders again

"Russian border guards resumed the installation of wire barbs a couple of days ago. They have readjusted our borders and have posed serious problems to the locals of the village Kere, Gori region. Allegedly, the oldest Georgian church as well as the cemetery can be incorporated within the territory occupied by the Russians. The locals of the village have voiced concerns over the Russians move and have appealed to the Government to give them a helping hand,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“The residents of the village Kere have been faced with a truly serious threat – Russian and Ossetian soldiers may stop providing them with water. And this will apparently devastate their orchards and gardens. On top of that, the road via which they reached their plots has also been blocked. It is also worth noting that the Russian border guards have installed the banners that mark borders in the village Kere several months ago. However, they got down on installing wired fences a couple of days ago,” the article says.

“This move from Russians in nothing new; we are permanently collecting information in terms of this matter to rapidly inform the International Organizations regarding similar facts,” announces Head of Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage Agency, Natia Murachashvili. In addition, first Deputy Minister of Reconciliation and Civil Equality, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, says that the current developments of the Kere village were discussed in Geneva too,” reads the paper.

“The Euro monitoring mission is studying this case at this point in time. We, from our part, will make all-out efforts to make them dismantle these wire fences. We have quadrupled efforts to safeguard the interests of the residents of the village, and we will do everything in our power to achieve our goal,” declared Tsikhelashvili.