Issue no: 1215 • DECEMBER 27 - 30, 2019 • PUBLISHED TWICE WEEKLY PRICE: GEL 2.50 In this week’s issue... Three Sentenced for FOCUS Stealing 139,000 GEL ON NEW YEAR from Commercial Bank Tbilisi is all set for the holidays! PAGE 2, 12 Consumers NEWS PAGE 2 Kazakh President Announces Major Political Reforms POLITICS PAGE 4 The Russian Effect on the Czech Republic POLITICS PAGE 5 Burjanadze Claims Georgia Should Celebrate Victory over Fascism with Moscow POLITICS PAGE 6 Public Defender Publishes Report on Violence in Prisons SOCIETY PAGE 8 Patriarch Celebrates 42 Years in Power Georgian Internet Industry SOCIETY PAGE 9 The Brotherhood of Man, Middle Eastern Hospitality, against Internet Piracy Georgian Wine, & the BY NINI DAKHUNDARIDZE Christmas Spirit CULTURE PAGE 12 eorgian media, commercial and informational internet portals are concerned with the high statistics One of 20 PEN Translates of internet piracy on Georgian websites, highlighting their belief Awards Goes to a Title Gthat internet piracy disrupts the development of the internet industry in the country. Translated from Georgian The Anti-Piracy Center is joined by Georgian CULTURE PAGE 13 online platforms and organizations specializing in protecting intellectual property, including Entrepreneur, Georgia Today, IPN.GE, TKT.ge, popsport, mygroup, the Innovation Agency, and Georgian Museum of Fine others. These websites and organizations demand steps be taken to improve the situation. In par- Arts Presents Exhibition ticular, they urge the major advertising compa- nies to not locate their advertisements on pirate ‘Hopscotch’ online platforms. The anti-piracy Georgian plat- CULTURE PAGE 15 forms believe that the latter will aid the devel- opment of the internet industry, and the matter of intellectual property protection in Georgia. Chinese Art Exhibition Continued on page 5 CULTURE PAGE 15 How Beeline Employees Celebrate New Year Veon Georgia HQ, Tbilisi GEORGIA TODAY 2 NEWS DECEMBER 27 - 30, 2019 Tbilisi Mayor Invites Everyone to Join New Year Celebrations Public Transport to be Free on New Year’s Eve in Tbilisi BY ANA DUMBADZE ublic transport will be free on New Year’s Eve in Tbilisi, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced today. "The metro system, buses Pand Rike-Tbilisi ropeway will be free of charge from 11 am on December 31 through 4 am on January 1. 160 buses will oper- ate on 75 routes at 30-minute intervals. The timetable will be the same for Christmas night. I think this kind of facilitation is very important for our citizens," he noted. Photo Source: Tbilisi City Hall The following buses will be serve the N22, N23, N25, N27 , N28, N30, N31, N34, N70, N71, N73, N74, N75, N76, N77, N78, everyone to join the New Year celebra- residents of the capital on New Year's N36, N37, N39, N40, N41, N42, N43, N44, N79, N80, N82, N84, N87, N88, N90, N91, BY ANA DUMBADZE tions. "The First Republic Square and Eve: N1, N2, N3, N4, N6, N7, N8, N10, N45, N47, N48, N49, N52, N53, N55, N56, N95, N99, N101, N103, N104, N106, N108, Orbeliani Square will be the two main N11, N12, N13, N14, N15, N18, N19, N20, N58, N59, N60, N62, N63 , N66, N68, N109, N110, N112, N121, N122 and N140. venues in the city, hosting various events eorgia’s main New Year between December 25 and January 13,” tree was lit up on Decem- he told the crowd. Kaladze noted that ber 25 in First Republic this year's celebrations traditionally Three Sentenced for Stealing 139,000 Square in the Georgian promise to be diverse and include street capital Tbilisi. markets, musical performances, and GTbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze invited much more. GEL from Commercial Bank Consumers The investigation established that the BY ANA DUMBADZE detainees spread advertisements on Thai Airline Begins Operating Facebook, which attracted users onto pages that resemble the websites of hree individuals have been Georgian commercial banks and asked in Georgian Air Market sentenced for stealing them to input account information which December 25. 139,000 GEL from consum- the perpetrators then used to funnel BY ANA DUMBADZE Air Asia will implement fi ve charter ers of Bank of Georgia and money into their own accounts. fl ights by Airbus 330 planes until Janu- TBC Bank via a phishing The individuals were convicted on ary 2. The airline will carry out additional Tscheme, announced the Prosecutor’s charges of unauthorized access to a com- ir company Thai Air Asia X charter fl ights in April 2020. Offi ce of Georgia. puter system, unauthorized storage of has launched direct charter Thai Air Asia X is a Thai long-haul Tbilisi City Court sentenced citizens computer data, unauthorized creation, fl ights from Bangkok, the low-fare airline, operating in the aviation M.D. and M.A. to eight years in prison, storage and distribution of computer capital city of Thailand, to market since 2014. Currently, the com- ordering a fi ne of 40,000 GEL for each, programs, as well as theft. Tbilisi, TAV Georgia reports. pany offers fl ights to 66 international while M.B. was sentenced to fi ve years They were detained back in April 2019, AThe fi rst fl ight was carried out on and 29 local destinations. and six months in prison. Photo Source: shutterstock.com the Prosecutor’s Offi ce reports. GEORGIA TODAY 4 POLITICS DECEMBER 27 - 30, 2019 Kazakh President Announces Major Political Reforms tant element in enhancing economic hatred, will be humanized and will have well-being and human capital.” more clearly defi ned terms to reduce Once the law is passed, peaceful rallies ambiguity and vagueness. will require notifi cation to the relevant Tokayev said the government is aware authorities only, rather than going through of the demand for further political a permission process. changes. “It is time for both society and the state “Democracy should serve development to adequately relate to the public expres- and creativity, and not estrangement and sion of position. We need to understand collapse. There should be no place for that rallies are not only a right, but a populism,” he said. responsibility,” said Tokayev. The Kazakh President supported the The threshold to form a political party idea of including civil society repre- will be reduced from 40,000 to 20,000 sentatives on the boards of directors of people in an effort to reduce barriers to socially signifi cant enterprises in the equal political participation and expand quasi-public sector. opportunities for civic engagement. The government will complete the Tokayev said the law on parties and elec- selection procedures and propose can- tions should also be gradually changed. didacies for those roles by March 1, 2020. Kazakhstan also needs to build a tradi- The government has proposed cutting tion of parliamentary opposition, the more than 100 types of activities of state President noted. companies and more work needs to be “We need to understand the main con- done, Tokayev added, particularly in big dition for a new social paradigm – the cities, where the competitive environ- presence of alternative views and opin- ment is well developed. ions. We understand that alternative The country’s foreign workers’ quota opinions and public debate do not lead will also be reduced by 40% next year to stagnation, but, on the contrary, are from 49,000 to 29,000. some of the main requirements for devel- The government will continue work opment,” Tokayev said. to prevent discrimination against local The 44-member council was established Tokayev described as an “extremely He instructed the Kazakh Ministry of workers by foreign employers. BY ASSEL SATUBALDINA July 17 to tackle some of the country’s sensitive area.” Foreign Affairs to start procedures to All companies with more than 250 most acute issues. “There should be no doubt as to the join the Second Optional Protocol to the employees and where more than 30 of “We are overcoming the fear of the need for political modernization, which International Covenant on Civil and them are foreign citizens will be subject azakh President Kassym- alternative opinion. The government I said in my state-of-the-nation address,” Political Rights, aimed at abolishing the to regular inspections. Jomart Tokayev announced does not believe that disagreement is a the President said. “At the same time, death penalty. Kazakhstan has maintained “Now the Ministry of Labor will be a package of significant destructive or socially dangerous phe- the reforms should contribute to the a moratorium on capital punishment able to quickly respond to any violations, political reforms, during the nomenon,” Tokayev told the council stable development of our country, not since December 2003. including disproportionate wages, social second meeting of the during the meeting. undermine it. We need to strengthen the Article 174 of the Kazakh Penal Code, conditions and so on, not allowing prob- KNational Council of Public Trust, held on The state demonstrated its political creative foundation of the political pro- which penalizes incitement of social, lems to accumulate from year to year,” December 20 in the Kazakh capital, Astana. will to achieve concrete results in what cess so that pluralism becomes an impor- national, tribal, racial, class or religious said Tokayev. Disinformation One of Georgia’s Top Challenges aims to discredit the ruling party oppo- BY TEA MARIAMIDZE nents. The organization claims that since at least the Presidential election in 2018, ne of the top problems that home-grown disinformation has been Georgia faces is the spread used as a tool to systematically discredit of disinformation, which political opponents in the online space challenges the integrity of in Georgia. democratic processes, be TI stressed that concerns remain that Oit elections or everyday public debate. the Georgian government might intro- Non-governmental organization Trans- duce anti-disinformation regulation that parency International (TI) Georgia stud- will challenge the robust legal protection ied some of the most frequently dis- for freedom of expression in Georgia.