July 17 - 23, 2015 WEEKLY PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY www.georgiatoday.ge Price: GEL 2.50 Georgia Today 24 p. ISSUE No.775 RRRussiaussiaussia CrCreeeepingping CloserCloser IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE What the Greek Bailout Agreement Looks Like PM Tsipras and Greek negotiating team accept BUSINESS HEADLINES bailout, harsh terms and all, with the Eurozone having made only slight US Donates 85 concessions. P.2 Million USD to South Caucasus P.11 Tea: a Potential New signposts on South Ossetian ABL leave farmland and BP pipeline under Russian control. Gold Mine of P.6 Georgian Value of Prague Good Cop Agriculture? P.4 Talks Tires and Tickets: Questioned Bad Cop Reclaiming the Amid South Amid South Zugdidi Incident Prompts Expats Sidewalks in to Reveal Police Concerns FLIGHT SCHEDULE Ossetia Border Tbilisi Controversy Foreigners come forward with their own tales of Citizens fight for their No progress to report: negligent or even aggressive right to walk on sidewalks "Russia does not trade its P.4 treatment from police in while City Hall works on allies,” PM Medvedev says. P.6 Georgia. P.8 new parking schemes. P.17 2 JULY 17 - 23 POLITICS WWhahatt thethe GrGreekeek BailoutBailout AgAgrreementeement LooksLooks LikLikee By Joseph Larsen FEW CONCESSIONS BY “possible longer grace and payment pe- EUROZONE riods” which could be extended to Months of bitter negotiations be- The statement shows that Eurozone Greece in order to make its debt more tween Greece and its Eurozone credi- negotiators made only slight conces- sustainable. tors are nearly over. Early Monday sions from the June 26 proposal. morning the two sides agreed on a cash- The EUR50 billion privatization REBELLION IN SYRIZA RANKS for-reform agreement that will provide fund will be managed by the Greek au- Tsipras and the Greek negotiating Greece with an EUR86 billion bailout thorities, an easing of previous demands team accepted the bailout, harsh terms allowing it to meet its debt obligations that it be “transferred to an existing ex- and all. But getting the agreement for the next three years. ternal and independent fund.” through Greek parliament came at the Most importantly, the troubled Furthermore, only one part of the cost of alienating much of the party’s Mediterannean nation will remain in the fund must be earmarked to pay down base. Eurozone. It will be the third bailout Greek debt. The previous proposal de- “With this deal, the public mandate program extended to Greece since 2010. manded that the full EUR50 billion be and the proud ‘No’ of the Greek people The agreement comes with a cost, used for debt reduction. in the referendum is canceled,” railed however. Barely a week after voting to The Eurozone also pledged to “work Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, reject the Eurozone’s bailout conditions Greeks protest the country’s bailout agreement with the EU near the steps of the closely with the Greek authorities to one of Syriza’s staunch leftist members. in a stunning July 5 referendum, the parliament in Athens on July 13. mobilise up to EUR35 bn (under vari- Lafazanis was one of 38 Syriza mem- Greek people will be forced to swallow never left the negotiating table; it is still Measures include privatizing the ous EU programmes) to fund investment bers, including former Finance Minis- yet another round of harsh austerity at the negotiating table.” country’s electricity transmission net- and economic activity” over the next ter Yanis Varoufakis and Deputy Labor measures including tax increases and Sixty-one percent of voters checked work, liberalizing markets for products, three-to-five years. This is widely seen Minister Dimitris Stratoulis, who voted spending cuts. the “no” box, but it did little to streng- professional services and labor, and cut- as the most significant concession made against the agreement. Greek banks currently remain closed, then Greece’s position vis a vis its ting spending on public administration, by the creditors. The agreement was passed with 229 and Greek Economy Minister George ceditors. among other measures. A previous German proposal that votes in Greece’s 300-seat parliament, Stathakis has predicted that it will be “a The Euro Summit Statement issued Perhaps most difficult to accept for Greece be given a five-year “time-out from with Tsipras being forced to rely on sup- couple of months” before capital con- on July 12 set out the list of reforms and Syriza’s staunch leftist base, the deal will the euro area” if a deal wasn’t reached was port from opposition parties PASOK and trols are fully lifted. fiscal measures, that Greece had to require the government to place EUR50 also removed from the final text. New Democracy, both groups his party implement, on Wednesday evening be- billion in state assets in an “independent Dashing the hopes of many Greeks defeated in parliamentary elections ear- THE ANATOMY OF AN fore negotiations could begin on a fund that will monetize the assets who hoped that Tsipras could success- lier this year. AUSTERITY PACKAGE Memorandum of Understanding (the through privatisations and other means.” fully negotiate a write-down of some of The full text of the Euro Summit Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras conclusion of which would result in the Half of the proceeds (EUR25 billion) Greece’s debt, both the agreement and Statement can be accessed here: https:// and his left-wing Syriza party lobbied actual dispersal of bailout funds). will go to recapitalizing Greek banks; the previous proposal take the same hard www.google.ge/?gws_rd=cr,ssl- hard for the public to vote “no” in the The four preliminary points include the remainder will be divided between line: “nominal haircuts on the debt can- &ei=VISnVbHmL-4fiywPXl4- referendum on whether to accept a set increasing tax revenue, implementing paying down Greece’s external debts not be taken.” CIAQ#q=News-+Armenia+News- of economic reforms proposed by the pension reform, introducing automatic and funding growth initiatives. However, the final text mentions +Agency Eurozone on 26 June. spending cuts in case budget surplus tar- The move was intended to gain le- gets are missed, and ensuring full inde- verage in negotiations, with Tsipras tell- pendence of the national statistics office. ing a state-run TV station that “the The document contains a second list Former PM Zhvania’s Death greater the number of no [votes], the of required reforms that must be imple- greater weapon the government will mented in order for the Memorandum have to re-launch negotiations. Greece of Understanding to be agreed upon. Still a Mystery 10 Years On By Steven Jones The death of former Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania has been a con- troversial subject for Georgian society for several years. The current govern- ment promised a full investigation of the case prior to the 2012 elections, with many claiming that Zhvania’s death was not accidental and alleging that the United National Movement, then in power, had been involved. The Georgian prosecutor’s office has accused two members of Zhvania’s former private guard of neglecting their duties to protect the former PM, who was found dead in a private apartment on Feb- ruary 2, 2005. “I am a prosecutor and embarrassing topics do not exist for me. The defendants violated the law, official regulations, internal regulations and se- curity requirements. The General Inspec- Zurab Zhvania, Georgian Ex-Prime Minister. tion delivered a report that Kharshiladze of state security protocol, according to to the car but then realized it would be and Dzadzamia did not perform their which they were committed to provide absurd for Zura to be found in a strange duties in a proper way,” Revaz Nadoi, the security to a high-ranking official,” de- flat in such a condition, so we took Georgian prosecutor commented. clared the prosecutor in the courtroom. Usupov’s body back to the flat. I had “We have heard that the accused are Kharshiladze, the head of Zhvania’s already called Baramidze (Interior min- going to break their silence and tell truth private guards says: “February 2, 2005 ister that time), after which I phoned the in court. They have changed their evi- was a normal working day. I went to President. When law enforcers came the dence five times. The word of a man, work and then back home. Dzadzamia public became aware of the situation. I who has changed his evidence five called me at about 03:30 saying some- had no intentions of saying these words times, is worthless. They are guilty and thing was wrong. I went to the Saburtalo publicly, let Zura’s soul forgive me,” must be punished,” Nadoi underlined. district from Gldani, it took 10 minutes”. Koba Kharshiladze said. The former PM Zhvania according When I got to the flat, the door was Zhvania’s widow says the suspects to the prosecutor’s office was taken to locked, so I entered through a window. are lying: “The apartment was not sup- an unknown place and Kharshiladze and Zura was sitting in an armchair. We plied with natural gas at 3:00 AM. They Dzadzamia (private guards) were obli- checked his pulse and then performed are simply rambling, saying Dzadzamia gated to provide Zhvania with security CPR on his lifeless body. No signs of called Kharshiladze.” but did not. According to Nadoi “in fact, violence were visible at the scene,” The former PM’s brother Gogla they abandoned him”. Kharshiladze recalls. Zhvania also accuses the ex-government “All this resulted in a terrible inci- “The situation was like this: Usupov in covering the ‘authentic facts’. dent. The PM died under vague circum- (Governor of Kvemo Kartli Region, Zhvania’s death remains a cloudy stances; this means Kharshiladze and who died along with Zhvania), and chapter in Georgia’s recent history and HAVE YOUR HAIR CUT AT OUR SALON Dzadzamia did not fulfill their obliga- Zhvania were naked.