In the weird and mean empire of malicious management and brutal control, known as USSR, some of the things worked fine for Georgia, as strange as it might sound. It would be pathetic of me to feel nostalgic about those wicked times. I don’t! I swear upon anything that could be called honest inside me. I simply want to try to be fair in appreciation of our bygone days. 

Miners continue to strike in Tkibuli, Imereti region of Georgia. 45 miners are on strike down in a mine, an InterpressNews correspondent reports.

‘He Noted that NATO Will Trust and Understand All of the New Government’s actions‘

Since NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen was “extremely concerned” over recent arrests of “political opponents” of new government in Georgia, PM Bidzina Ivanishvili offers NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to send a team to Georgia that would monitor ongoing investigation into criminal charges brought against former defense minister and two former senior army commanders.

Minority leaders Pavle Kublashvili, Goga Khachidze, Irma Nadirashvili and Tetritskaro majoritarian MP Davit Bezhuashvili went to Tetritskaro municipality local government.

Georgia’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs Salome Zurabishvili writes in Facebook that neither Georgia’s ambassador in EU Salome Samadashvili or permanent representative to NATO Gega Mgaloblishvili met Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili in Brussels.

It is the third day of strike of yellow bus drivers in Tbilisi. As one of the drivers told InterPressNews, part of the drivers are invited to the City Assembly today to find solution to the issue, meeting with the MPs will be held.

The alternative mechanism for monitoring of the penitentiary system is being discussed by the initiation of the Ministry of Legal Assistance and Corrections at the Radisson hotel. The meeting was opened by Minister of Legal Assistance and Corrections Sozar Subari.

Lately the refugees have tried to break in different residences. They demand their problems connected basically to shelters to be solved as soon as possible. Public movement Solidarity and its leader Davit Tsiramua who is a refugee and Abkhazia War participant himself, called on the IDPs to observe the law and wait until the new government studies the situation and takes concrete steps to help them.

As fallible human beings, we usually trip into the bottomless pit of assessing others in a condemnatory fashion, oblivious to our own failings. The truth of the matter is that we’ve all judged, and been judged more often than we realize. I’ve been recently touched by the wickedness, from a girl who was thought to radiate her unwavering convictions everywhere she went. She exhibited them through her modest clothing and style, her sleek black hair always pulled back so tightly it could’ve ripped her scalp off any minute.

National Bureau of Enforcement confirms that 79.710,021,60 GEL transferred to the account of the national bureau of enforcement by Bidzina Ivanishvili as a fine has not been spent and on the grounds of the order of the bureau chairman on 18 October 2012, the money has been returned to Bidzina Ivanishvili, a statement from the bureau of enforcement reads.

The Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Gia Kavtaradze, has resigned. He released a statement in this regard.

Bidzina Ivanishvili calls on Mikheil Saakashvili to use the presidential residence of the chancellery. As Ivanishvili told journalists after the governmental sitting, a lot of funding is spent on serving the president, which is unacceptable.

The Situation is tensed in village Nigvziani, Lanchkhuti region. As a correspondent of InterPressNews informs, the locals don’t allow the Muslims from Adjara to pray.

‘My aim is restoration of justice, not returning of the company’ – declares Mamia Sanadiradze, founder and ex-holder of the control package of ‘Caucasus Online’ Company who came back from London several days ago. According to him the aim of his return is to begin investigation of the organized crime that was committed against him in 2009. In the interview he speaks about the reason that made the control-package-holder sell his share. 

Head of the Georgian MIA patrol division Goga Grigalashvili has resigned. As head of the MIA press service Salome Makharadze told InterPressNews Grigalashvili left the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Interview with the new Ambassador of Israel Mr. Yuval Fuchs

Israel has a new Ambassador to Georgia. He came here “just in time”, at a very crucial and interesting moment for the country and was able to observe all latest political events. He is one of the most active ambassadors, as it was his initiative to talk to us, which we deeply appreciate.  

The new team is looking at how it can fix things. Here is an idea. Let's pass a law preventing people from hiding ownership. That has become a very popular activity in Georgia and not just in Georgia. It used to be that setting up a company was so difficult and bureaucratic that nobody wanted to do it. Now it is so easy, in Georgia and in many other places, that somebody can set up a company in Georgia so it is owned by another company in another country and that company is owned by another company in another country. That can be done in a day for not too much money. This makes it so difficult to find out who owns the actual company, that a potential business parter or journalist or anybody else gets discouraged or runs out of money and gives up.

As it seems, in the law-enforcement structures there are lots of facts, documents and scandalous video recordings regarding the criminal activity of state officials that thanks to certain reasons haven’t yet seen the day-light. The scandalous interview of our respondent is actually an example and confirmation of abomination that reigned in the country during all this time. Businessman Gia Omiadze discusses the issues of crimes committed by the state functionaries and their close relatives and how they were protected by the high-ranking officials.

I have been writing that after Irakli Okruashvili’s activities in the Defense Ministry, means of civil control over the Georgian army was on steady decline and totally disappeared thanks to Bacho Akhalaia. The fact that the Defense Minister candidate Irakli Alasania vows to strengthen civil control over the armed forces is something to be wholeheartedly welcomed because without civil control and especially in case of unpredictable defense ministers, the army may grow dangerous.

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) Georgia Office director Luis Navarro says that people, who had not decided who to vote for shortly before elections, made their choices after the prison scandal.

The first parliamentary session has been officially opened in Kutaisi by President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Members of the National Movement stood up to greet the president.

New government of Georgia is expected to move Georgia closer to the EU community by changing the Singapore economic model for the European model.

Maumaus School (Lisboa) in Tbilisi for one month at CCAT(CENTER OF CONTEMPORARY ART – Offside Maumaus.

Seminars take place on:

17.10. & 18.10. at 7 p.m. (Jurgen Bock)

4.11. / 5.11. / 6.11. at 11 a.m. (Manuela Ribeiro Sanches)

11.11. / 12.11. / 13.11. at 11 a.m. (Marcel Stotzler)

Participation for Offside Maumaus is free, but participants need to sign up and commit to the entire one month program. Sign up: kat@cca.ge

The core activity of the Maumaus School in Lisbon comprises an Independent Study Program that offers artists an intellectually intense and artistically demanding “Think Tank” atmosphere after their studies and first experiences in the art field. The program seeks to instigate discussion on philosophies concerning phenomena of our being (from artistic, historical and art historical, political and sociological perspectives). This academic year, Maumaus is holding the first part of its program of classes in Guimaraes, the European Capital of Culture in Portugal, and at the Tbilisi Triennial in Georgia. The school programs will be presented in both cities with a private component (seminars) and a public component (Maumaus Lecture Series).

The US Deputy Secretary of State hand delivered a letter from Barack Obama to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.