NEWS: Georgia News Digest 12-21-07

A service of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies

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1. report: Georgia: Sliding towards authoritarianism?
2. report: Crossing the line: Georgia’s violent dispersal of protestors and raid on Imedi Television
3. report: Presidential elections 2008 pre-election tv monitoring (First Report from 10-15 December)
4. ACT publishes indexes of political ratings and electorate's pre-election feelings
5. Phone poll gives former president commanding lead
6. CEC approves wording of election questions
7. Recommendations on the work of the Central Election Commission from Georgian NGOs
8. Pre-election polls: What would be needed
9. Lack of independent polling hurts elections
10. Cameras/VCR to be settled at electoral districts
11. CEC refused to publish primary data of election funds
12. Georgians in U.S. want to take part in 5 January polls
13. Pre-election turmoil in Samegrelo and totally falsified election registers
14. Debate over referendum wording about more than just the language
15. Plebiscite question agreed
16. Justice Minister responds to accusations linked to voter rolls
17. Ingilos boycott upcoming presidential elections
18. American expert, Lincoln Mitchell: “You’ll have an election, you’ll have a winner and then you’ll have protests”
19. Georgia is the pilot project of United States
20. Government group to meet opposition
21. Authority is blamed for persecuting the opponents
22. NGOs to file suit against two presidential candidates
23. NGO demands prosecution of interior minister, former president
24. Germany will decide soon on whether to grant political asylum to Irakli Okruashvili
25. MPs comment on Berdzenishvili's statement
26. video: Human Rights Watch: Georgian police went too far
27. Burjanadze negatively evaluates events held near Batumi University on November 08
28. TV debates held at Kakheti tv companies
29. CEC issued initial media monitoring results
30. Dieter Boden positively evaluated pre-election media monitoring
31. Video bridge Moscow-Tbilisi-New York – Georgia ahead of presidential elections – to be held
32. Newspaper Guria News kick-starts movement under slogan “we choose democracy!”
33. Successful mission for Adam Michnik
34. Who owns Rustavi 2 and Mze?
35. Burjanadze justifies Imedi closure, but not the means
36. Georgia station starts over
37. Government supports Georgian Patriarch’s initiative
38. Patarkatsishvili warned about possible disqualification from campaign
39. According to headquarters of Patarkatsishvili, voters’ lists are increased by 1/3
40. Patarkatsishvili refrains from arriving in Georgia
41. No plans for Patarkatsishvili's immediate return
42. Patarkatsishvili: ‘Saakashvili's regime dangerous, merciless’
43. Defect from Saakashvili - Patarkatsishvili tells Burjanadze
44. GYLA demands to withdraw candidacy of Saakashvili and Patarkatsishvili
45. People rushing to back Patarkatsishvili's presidential bid
46. Patarkatsishvili expected in Tbilisi ahead of 5 January vote
47. Report on Patarkatsishvili return to Georgia on Dec 20 denied
48. Badri Patarkatsishvili: From Russian businessman to Georgian presidential claimant
49. The Metekhi obligation: Shalva Natelashvili’s presidential program
50. Natelashvili meets voters in Kvemo Kartli Region
51. Natelashvili presents his program on demographic issues
52. Natelashvili wants campaign money declared
53. Maisashvili wraps up visit to Adjara
54. Maisashvili summed up results of two-day election campaign in Adjara
55. Maisashvili: Azerbaijanis will feel themselves as free and independent citizens in the country they live in
56. Maisashvili holds meetings with voter in Kutaisi
57. Maisashvili calls for "disobedience" if election rigged
58. New Rights snub inter-agency group on elections
59. Gamkrelidze to meet voters in Kakheti Region
60. Gamkrelidze’s ads attack Saakashvili’s policies
61. Opposition accuses former president of bribing voters
62. Opposition to trust international organizations' opinion of election
63. Profile of David Gamkrelidze
64. Gamqrelidze: I am not planning to be Georgian president for five years
65. Sarishvili meets with foreign ambassador
66. Sarishvili familiarized Kovalenko with her views on relations with Russia
67. Gachechiladze promises not to dismiss in vain state officials when he becomes president
68. Gachechiladze meets voters in Gori
69. Georgian students abroad, support Levan Gachechiladze
70. Gachechiladze sells GWS shares
71. Gachechiladze names reasons for selling shares
72. Opposition reports campaign HQ in western town vandalized
73. The opposition has discovered specific inaccuracies on voter lists
74. Saakashvili’s election headquarters welcome startup of media council activities
75. Saakashvili tightens his autocratic rule
76. Saakashvili to meet voters In Kobuleti
77. Youths supporting Mikheil Saakashvili are uniting
78. Human Rights Center insists on bringing up the case against Saakashvili
79. Saakashvili met voters in Kobuleti
80. Doctors joined youth headquarters supporting Saakashvili
81. More being spent on Saakashvili campaign than declared – rival
82. 2008 budget surplus of gel 275,000 planned
83. Revised 2008 draft budget unveiled
84. Defense spending cut by gel 400 mln
85. Budget of healthcare to increase to gel 1,260 billion in 2008
86. Money-and-credit and currency policy of 2008 will be directed to stabilization of prices
87. State program cheap credit prepared
88. Parliament of Georgia accepted the draft trends under money-and-credit and exchange policy in 2008
89. Inflation index in Georgia exceeds that in the main trade partners
90. The Government of Georgia to establish future's fund
91. Assets of Georgian banks to reach $14-15 billion in 2012 - Lado Gurgenidze
92. Government intends to reorganize stock market
93. No room for tsinandali on the Chinese wine market?
94. Poti population protest processing of aluminum oxide in Poti port
95. Poti free economic zone to be a ‘laboratory’ for Georgian development
96. A decade of challenges for Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova
97. Georgia to decide on CIS membership depending on its ability to resolve problems - diplomat
98. Eduard Shevardnadze: Gorbachev and Yeltsin confrontation led to the collapse of the Soviet Union
99. Yerevan to coordinate some issues with Georgian Administration
100. Armenia demanded to consider territorial conflicts in Georgia at PACE
101. Bezhuashvili congratulates Ukrainian colleague on appointment
102. Georgia against proposal to invite separatist leaders to Council of Europe
103. Burjanadze says Russia may stage acts of provocation
104. Russian peacekeepers deny dispatch of Chechen unit to Georgia's conflict zone
105. The Chechen bomb. Have the Russians deployed Zapad and Vostok on Georgian territory?
106. Chechen spetsnaz has entered Abkhazia and South Ossetia
107. Chechen servicemen thrown to conflict zones
108. video: “Georgia has lost Abkhazia forever”: Abkhazian Deputy Foreign Minister
109. Russia determined to recognize Abkhazia
110. A restart to the Abkhaz conflict would be disastrous for both sides, experts warn
111. Two people died in car accident in Zemo Abkhazia
112. Resident of Abkhazia says Georgians deprived of rights in breakaway region
113. Minister says Georgia to respond to any acts of provocation in Abkhazia
114. House fired at by Georgians in Gali district - Abkhaz officials
115. Refugees from Abkhazia to receive humanitarian aid from Georgian royal family
116. Separatists detain 30 Georgians
117. Separatist PM threatens
118. video: Artillery fights snow blocks in Caucasus
119. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, OSCE envoy discuss S. Ossetia
120. Opening of new gas distribution network postponed
121. Burjanadze promised “033” staff renewal of technique and increase of salary
122. Burjanadze meets Agrarian University professors and students
123. Nino Burjanadze meets ethnic minorities in Georgia
124. Government to reinforce property rights
125. Government supports Georgian Patriarch’s initiative
126. OSCE Mission presents publications to support judicial reform and legislative process in Georgia
127. Ukrainian company opened plant in Georgia
128. Georgian beyond reason: Georgian people’s unrecognized contributions to the world
129. Family of victim of accident in Turkey blame bus driver
130. Flood threatens the Chomi population
131. Chechen refugees are not allowed to go abroad
132. A gift of canned food: UN distributes pork to Chechen refugees
133. Prison instead of love
134. Judges should obey “guidelines”
135. Batumi dwellers are disappointed with employment program
136. Park Hyatt Tbilisi and Shakira in Tbilisi
137. Nina Ananiashvili revives Georgian Ballet
138. Official demands gel 10,000 from young editor for moral damage
139. I was chained by the neck to a wall in a tiny underground cell. I prayed and thought about my family in Wales

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Jonathan Kulick, Ph.D., Director of Studies, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, 3a Chitadze, Tbilisi 0108, Georgia (Republic), jonathan.kulick@gfsis.org, office: +995 32 47 35 55, mobile: +995 95 33 33 40, USA voicemail: 310.928.6814