The UAE state-owned oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) has signed an investment agreement with the German chemical company Covestro, Azernews reports.
Day: October 1, 2024
#Reise “Frauen unterwegs in Georgien” via @kaukasusreisen https://t.co/tbiF2y9bgR#ReisenInGeorgien #Kaukasus #Georgien #Tourismus 8/8
— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) October 1, 2024
Dies ist sicherlich nicht das letzte Mal, dass ich in Georgien gewesen bin. Bedanken möchte ich mich auch bei meinen Mitreisenden in unserer kleinen Gruppe von sechs Frauen, die auch für den „Erfolg“unserer tollen Reise verantwortlich sind.“
Elena Ahlers
7/8
— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) October 1, 2024
Hier geht es nicht um,
auch nicht irgendwelche religiösen, vordergründigen Gefühlslagen. Das Land ist in vielerlei Hinsicht archaisch, wovon man in seinem Mensch-Sein tief berührt wird, etwas, was ich in vielen Reisen in verschiedenen Ländern, so noch nicht erfahren habe. 6/8— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) October 1, 2024
Diese Reise in das Land, dass ich einfach nur als biblisch bezeichnen möchte in verschiedener Hinsicht, hat etwas mit mir gemacht, etwas was mental beeindruckend lange nachwirken wird und auch verarbeitet werden muss. 5/8
— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) October 1, 2024
The Party of Global War and Ivanishvili
The honorary chairman of the ruling party, Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, stated that he blames the so-called “party of global war” for “financial blackmail,” not the U.S. and the European Union. This was mentioned in Ivanishvili’s statement, which he issued in response to a post by the U.S. Embassy on Facebook.
The U.S. Embassy in Georgia responded to statements from leaders of the Georgian Dream party regarding the Credit Suisse case, highlighting on a map where to find Ivanishvili’s millions. In a post published by the embassy, it was noted that “Ivanishvili knows that the money related to Credit Suisse is held by courts in Bermuda and Singapore, not in America.“
On September 30, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, when asked by a journalist about possible financial sanctions, stated that “there is no justice in the modern world.”
As an example, Kaladze mentioned Bidzina Ivanishvili’s case against Credit Suisse.
What did Bidzina Ivanishvili say?
“First of all, it should be noted that the embassy cannot name a single statement made by me or any other leader of the ‘Georgian Dream’ in which we accused the U.S. or the European Union of financial blackmail.
When we spoke about theft from a bank account and financial blackmail, we always clarified that the blackmail comes not from the U.S. or the European Union, but from those forces we refer to as the ‘party of global war,’” the statement reads.
According to Ivanishvili, the so-called ‘party of global war,’ whose existence is only confirmed by Georgian Dream and its leaders, and whose true nature remains unknown, influences politicians and bureaucrats in both the U.S. and the European Union:
“This is why, until the financial blackmail is resolved, I refuse to meet with American politicians and bureaucrats, as the likelihood of the ‘party of global war’ influencing each of them is extremely high.”
According to Ivanishvili, he has formally informed his American colleagues of his position in writing and is willing to publicly discuss the content of the letter if the embassy requests it.
“Additionally, my lawyers have repeatedly disclosed detailed information about the financial restrictions imposed on me since the onset of the war in Ukraine, and if necessary, I am prepared to instruct them to publish updated information on this matter.
I would also like to remind you that we did not raise the topics of oligarchic influence, informal governance, the ‘deep state,’ and the party of war; these issues have become major themes in the current presidential campaign in the U.S.
Candidates such as Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and others are actively discussing these topics. The ‘party of global war’ is the force that, acting against Georgia’s national interests, is attempting to use the U.S. and the EU as cover, presenting the situation as if Georgia is opposing not them, but the U.S. and the EU,” the statement reads.
The dispute between Ivanishvili and Credit Suisse
The dispute between Ivanishvili and Credit Suisse began in 2011 when Ivanishvili was a client of the bank’s private banking services.
During this time, it became known that one of the bank’s managers, Patrice Lescoudron, was involved in fraudulent activities, embezzling money from confidential accounts, including Ivanishvili’s and that of Russian oligarch and business partner Vitaly Malkin.
The Swiss regulator, Finma, published a report stating that Credit Suisse failed to take appropriate action despite numerous warnings and suspicious circumstances.
Ivanishvili accused Credit Suisse of failing to protect his investments, demanding $800 million from the bank, claiming that this was the amount he lost due to the actions of former bank manager Patrice Lescoudron.
Credit Suisse’s trust division stated that Ivanishvili’s claim was exaggerated and sought to dismiss his lawsuit in court.
Lescoudron was convicted of fraud in 2018 and spent two years in pre-trial detention before his trial. He was released in 2019, but in July 2020, Lescoudron took his own life. Prior to this, he admitted to covering up the losses of affected clients caused by his poor investment decisions during the 2008 financial crisis by secretly transferring money from other client accounts.
In March 2022, The Financial Times reported that a Bermudian court ruled in favor of Bidzina Ivanishvili in his legal dispute against Credit Suisse, awarding him over $500 million (with Bloomberg reporting the amount as $607 million).
The next phase of the conflict between Ivanishvili and Credit Suisse began after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ivanishvili initiated several lawsuits against the bank, one of which concerned delays in transactions that resulted in financial losses for the businessman. There were reports that the bank had frozen his account, which held £2.7 billion, citing suspicions that the funds may have Russian origins.
In September 2022, Ivanishvili stated in a Singapore court that Credit Suisse failed to take the necessary measures, resulting in a loss of $1.27 billion.
In February 2023, Bloomberg reported that Credit Suisse Group AG paid billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili $210 million as part of a protracted legal dispute.
Irakli Kobakhidze is first the father of his two young sons and only then the Prime Minister of Georgia. His fiasco at this year’s UNGA session has attracted less media attention than the luxurious, unforgettable, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Big Apple that the youthful PM offered his little sons. As the media keeps the anger against corrupt officials at a simmer, the opposition shifts to populism, promising better pensions and social nets. But is one political dinosaur from the far left – still hard to take seriously – teetering on the 5% threshold election? At least one TV station would have you believe so.
In this week’s Talk On Air, Gigi tells of the rich and the poor…both hypocrites.
State Aircraft (?) – Mind Past Drama
Georgian journalists may not always be meticulous, but they are certainly aware that the masses are driven more by emotion than by facts. Nodar Meladze of the opposition-leaning TV Pirveli gets this quicker than others. With rousing music, a fast change of camera angles, and his booming, confident voice – his hands forming a Merkel-Raute – he creates an electrifying atmosphere for his exclusives.
That PM took his sons to New York was no secret — he told us himself. “I personally bought economy class tickets for them and myself,” he said proudly, adding that “the state saved ten thousand Lari.” But Meladze’s team found this hard to believe against the backdrop of the state-funded charter flight that ferried ex-PM Irakli Garibashvili and his son to Munich and onwards to the United States. That story was dug out by Meladze’s team.
So they went digging and found that at least the Tbilisi-Istanbul-Tbilisi legs of the return trip were likely made on a state plane, with Kobakhidze’s sons enjoying the privilege. Allegedly, Kobakhidze blocked access to information about state aircraft on the app, which had previously been used to expose Garibashvili’s misuse of state resources.
But what’s more disturbing is that the father, who campaigns to protect others’ children from Western “gay propaganda,” took his own sons to New York. This is how privileged parenting is done in Georgia: indulging in secrecy.
Kobakhidze insists that he paid for everything out of his pocket, but journalists remain skeptical. The PM, having developed a transparency fetish when it comes to his opponents, declines to disclose the full information. That’s too juicy not to follow up on.
No Salt, No Life
Meanwhile, the trip to New York was lavish. Kobakhidze reportedly dined on the most expensive cuts of steak at the glamorous Nusret Gökçe, better known for Salt Bae—the world’s sexiest butcher—whose meals can cost thousands.
“Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Campbell, David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and others dine at his restaurant,” read the TV Pirveli’s report, likely making viewers more envious than hungry. Kobakhidze’s son was even photographed with the celebrity chef. According to urban legends of the rich, such a photo requires ordering a special dish that costs more than a thousand dollars.
I expected the picture to appear, but it wasn’t released because of privacy concerns for the minor. Switching to another channel, Formula, I was surprised to find an investigative report on the same subject. They published the photo, with Kobakhidze’s son’s face blurred yet still recognizable, standing next to that evasive Salt Bae.
So PM Irakli Kobakhidze may have failed to secure a photo with U.S. President Joe Biden – an even greater disappointment as it happened on his birthday – but he seemed to find solace in securing a snapshot of his son with Salt Bae, a privilege not every Georgian child will ever experience (or wish, for that matter…)
Since they have the photo, the rest is easy to deduce. Journalists speculated that the picture was probably taken the same night Kobakhidze was snubbed by Biden and instead dined with the Georgian delegation, including the Georgian Ambassador to the U.S. Since his minor son couldn’t have been left alone, the dinner was likely for at least four people, costing thousands. What remains unclear is whether taxpayer money was spent, but Kobakhidze’s official salary doesn’t cover such extravagant outings. And this is only one piece of the New York trip puzzle.
Did Kobakhidze foot the bill for his son’s expenses from his pocket? “I guarantee you that he did, and those questioning this are cruel liars,” said Kobakhidze’s comrade Mamuka Mdinaradze. Perhaps he didn’t know.
“This wouldn’t be the first time Irakli Kobakhidze has used administrative resources for his sons; just last year, Formula showed how his son was chauffeured in a parliamentary car to private lessons,” said the channel. True, for many, it is hard to trust everything that the local media claims, but for viewers living in poverty, it is even harder not to believe in the stark reality of inequality.
Let that man rule the country for once and…
Although PM Kobakhidze claimed from the UN podium that the GD government had brought prosperity to its citizens, the reality at local bazaars tells a different story. Just ask Shalva Natelashvili, the veteran politician who once promised to “take from the rich and give back to the poor.” He has been such a fixture of Georgian politics that this paper’s 2006 political portrait already referred to him as a “veteran.”
Leader of the Labor Party since 1995, Natelashvili has occasionally made it into parliament, though he often refuses to take on his responsibilities once there – take, for instance, the 2002 decision to yield Tbilisi city council to young Mikheil Saakashvili, thus arguably paving him the way to the presidency. His tendency to inflate expectations of electoral victories—few of which have materialized—has led many to dismiss him as irrelevant. Still, his persistence in chasing political ambitions has surprised many.
Few expected him to cross the 5 percent threshold in upcoming elections, yet the latest poll solicited by Formula TV and conducted by Edison Research, puts Natelashvili at precisely 5 percent, on the verge of making it into the legislature. Coincidentally (or not?), Formula is the only TV station where Natelashvili has appeared regularly in the past two months. The other channels, he claims, have blocked him.
“It’s the rule: all right-wingers become left-wingers before the elections,” Natelashvili told cheerfully Formula’s Day talk show, explaining his lack of concrete social promises. His only goal, he insisted, is to replace the oligarchy with socialism. He pointed fingers at other opposition parties, accusing them of chasing (even more) money in politics, but added that the Labor Party would still be “ready” to collaborate with them once in parliament.
“They (the opposition) steal our socialist slogans and promises, but after elections, they claim socialism is outdated. It’s over. But look at Europe and America – they are socialist worlds. That’s why people live well there. That’s why this system took mankind into space…” Natelashvili then veered into a bit of personal history, somehow managing to praise Roosevelt for ending the Great Depression along the way. The hosts smiled, amused, gently nudging Natelashvili back to Georgia – and to 2024.
He returned to bash the GD, mock Ivanishvili’s oligarchic “aquarium,” and even compared Kobakhidze’s face to Moammar Gaddafi’s in his final moments. Two minutes later, Natelashvili, dead serious, declared that his party – currently polling at just 5 percent under only one poll – needs (and could secure) 76 seats in parliament to pass laws, including banning officials from sending their children to private schools. (Kobakhidze family won’t like that, for certain).
…Bufoon, some would say. But who knows?! A nation in despair may make any unpredictable move.