Oct. 30 - Nov. 5, 2015 WEEKLY PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY www.georgiatoday.ge Price: GEL 2.50 Georgia Today 24 p., Travel Today 4 p. ISSUE No.790 Ariel Cohen: Georgia IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE BUSINESS HEADLINES CouldCould BecomeBecome anan Nagorno-Karabakh: CouldCould BecomeBecome anan Peace ex Machina? PASHA Bank Sponsors Master P.4 Class by the Time Lord P.12 EnerEnerggyy ExporExporterter The Wolf of Wall Street to Advise Georgians How to Do it Better P.13 Vaping in Georgia The (breathe) ins-and-outs of the e-cig. P.10 Peter Nasmyth: From Rooftops to Glaciers Georgia Today picks the brains of the man under the flat cap. P.23 Analyzing the potential: Georgia Today met with Ariel Cohen, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and Director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics FINCA Bank at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. Georgia Launches P.8 Personal Banking Business Line P.11 Travel Happy Halloween From the Travel Georgia Today Team! Today 2 OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 5 POLITICS BidzinaBidzina IvanishviliIvanishvili OpensOpens UpUp onon ImediImedi TVTV By Steven Jones and assumes Garibashvili’s emotional solely around Rustavi 2, “while there is reactions are due to his youth. a dispute among the shareholders of Last week, ex-Georgian Prime Min- “There are strong leaders in the Maestro TV as well.” ister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, made an ap- team. There are parties in the coali- According to Ivanishvili, there are no pearance on Imedi TV’s talk show tion which perform their functions. I TV channels controlled by the govern- Kronika to discuss the dissimilar inter- think Irakli is a very good leader and ment today. nal political issues of the country. in the future he will be even more ef- “Of course, there was criticism of Ivanishvili called the National fective,” said Ivanishvili. Rustavi 2, as well as of other channels, Democratic Institute’s (NDI) research, According to Ivanishvili, Georgia because we did not have our own TV ‘the National Movement’s dream.’ “The does not need leaders from the past. “We channel,” Ivanishvili said. NDI is a respected organization for me, do not need that kind of team. Of course, The ex-PM, who is accused of con- trolling the overall political processes in the country and especially the "We do not need leaders from the past. Of course, Rustavi 2 case, said that the TV Com- pany is not independent. lack of order can be seen in the [current] team, “It is the UNM’s propaganda ma- but this is much better than the order of the chine. However, they do have a right to this,” Ivanishvili said. UNM, when the party followed and repeated one Analysis by Steven Jones While the former PM disappeared man’s stupidity. This does not happen anymore. from the official scene of Georgian poli- We have a government that serves the people.” tics on his first anniversary as a govern- mental leader, Ivanishvili was strongly believed to be ruling from the backstage as well as the International Republican lack of order can be seen in the team, for the entire period of his official ab- Institute (IRI). However, the NDI’s sur- but this is much better than the order of sence from the governmental circle. veys are conducted by Turmanidze’s the UNM, when the rest of the team fol- Moreover, some strategic issues for the organization founded by the United Na- lowed and repeated one man’s stupid- country, such as relations with Russia, tional Movement (UNM), while IRI’s ity. This does not happen anymore. We the Abkhazia Railway, as well as the surveys are carried out by Tskitishvili, have a government that serves the recent Gazprom issue and Russia’s pos- a member of the UNM,” Ivanishvili said. people,” Ivanishvili said. sible entrance into the Georgian energy After assessing the work of Prime The former PM also discussed the market, were broadly considered to be Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Ivanishvili issue of TV Company, Rustavi 2, stat- orchestrated by Ivanishvili as an unof- Bidzina Ivanishvili, described him as a good Prime Minister ing that he was surprised by such a stir ficial person. ex-Georgian Prime Minister. Likewise, as the case regarding the possible closure of Rustavi 2, Georgia’s Ivanishvili’s continuous claim that ‘he by 14 percent. largest TV station, was directly attrib- enjoys an excess of trust” from society, Will Georgian society - which has uted to Ivanishvili and his team’s desire the NDI’s recent polls speak differently. seen a dramatically devalued Lari, in- to mute free word in the country prior According to the last opinion poll, only creased crime and a weakened interna- to the elections of 2016, the former PM 13 percent of the citizens questioned tional position– vote for the same party seems to be attempting to revitalize his throughout the study support Georgian again? Does the Ivanishvili factor still political positions in the country. Despite Dream, whereas the UNM is supported matter? 3rd South Caucasus Security Forum Held By Steven Jones ing its best to support Georgia, “Includ- territory. ing by means of their physical presence Lincoln Mitchel, who serves as a On 26-26 October, Tbilisi hosted the in Georgia.” scholar at the Arnold Saltzman Institute South Caucasus Security Forum 2015, Some high-caliber security experts of War and Peace, stated that Russia’s organized by the Georgian Foundation for and analysts, including Michael Cecire President Putin is not likely to keep the Strategic and International Studies, the from the Foreign Policy Research Insti- existing status quo in either Georgia or Georgian Defense Ministry and Center for tute, Lincoln Mitchell of Columbia Uni- Ukraine. Moreover, as Mitchell be- European and North Atlantic Affairs. versity, as well as Ariel Cohen from the lieves, the Russia-Georgian war of 2008 The event was opened by the Geor- Atlantic Council, were present as pan- was the result of “bad US analysis” and gian Defense Minister and Prime Min- elists. non-strategic approach. ister Irakli Garibashvili involving more Most of the experts and government As a summary, the South Caucasus than 300 participants from around the officials, including ones from Moldova, Security Forum 2015 was assessed as globe, including high-ranking experts Ukraine and other European countries highly positive by all parties involved. and ambassadors as well as government loudly stated that Georgia deserves The format provided a unique opportu- representatives. NATO membership and the country can nity for the international experts and James Appathurai, Special Represen- meet all the membership criteria of the decision-makers to exchange both their tative of the NATO Security General, Alliance. What remains for Georgia on scientific and professional perspectives addressed the gathering: “Georgia has the Euro-Atlantic path is a political de- and work on some common approaches all the necessary instruments to join the cision by the 28 member countries of in terms of securing peace and stability NATO Member countries.” NATO, which as yet seems far from in the Caucasus and in the wider Black According to Appathurai, Georgia achievable. Sea region, as well as in Eastern Europe. should follow the path to NATO. He Considering information warfare and The Faculty of Social Sciences, stated that the yearly program has al- threats to Georgia from the Russian side, Charles University Prague and the ready been established and instruments the panelists stated that the current hy- Czech Republic partnered the Security that are beneficial for Georgia have al- brid warfare in Ukraine is the very con- Forum along with the Antall József ready been created adding: “We need to tinuation of what happened in Georgia Knowledge Center of Political and So- help Georgia prepare.” in 2008 when Russia waged a 5-day war cial Sciences (Hungary) and the Polish He continued that the Alliance is do- against the sovereign country on its own Institute of International Affairs (PISM.) HAVE YOUR HAIR CUT AT OUR SALON AND GET HAIR DIAGNOSTIC AS A GIFT! MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR: On behalf of Georgia Today I would like to apologise for a mistake made on Page 2 of the October 23-29 issue whereby it was stated that the UN had re- warded the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia with 8mln Euro. In fact, the Euro- pean Union (EU) was the donor of the financial aid. This was amended on our online version of the story, available here: http://georgiatoday.ge/news/1638/EU- Rewards-Ministry-of-Agriculture-of-Georgia-with-8mln-Euro. Panelists at the 3rd South Caucasus Security Forum. Source: Defense Ministry of Georgia, FB page. 4 OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 5 ECONOMY www.iset-pi.ge/blog The ISET Policy Institute (ISET-PI, www.iset-pi.ge) is an independent think-tank associated with the International School of Economics at TSU (ISET). Our blog carries economic analysis of current events and policies in Georgia and the South Caucasus region ranging from agriculture, to economic growth, energy, labor markets and the nexus of economics, culture and religion. Thought-provoking and fun to read, our blog posts are written by international faculty teaching at ISET and recent graduates representing the new generation of Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian economists. NaNaggororno-Kno-Kararaabakh:bakh: PPeaceeace eexx MacMachina?hina? Florian Biermann nomic, political, and diplomatic param- and Aram Grigoryan eters that could slowly but steadily be moved in a direction that is good for both Negotiation support systems (NSS) let sides. Finally, at the end of a long journey, computers be brokers in multidimensional after trust was built and economic ties were and highly complex negotiation problems. established, one might even talk about In the last 20 years, platforms like land; again in a piecemeal fashion, maybe Smartsettle and Inspire were used in thou- through a sequence of land swaps, village sands of serious negotiation cases around by village, square kilometer by square ki- the world, many of which were success- lometer.