“Utility costs are increasing for citizens without any improvement in the quality of supply,” stated Georgia’s fifth president Salome Zurabishvili, commenting on the rise in electricity prices.

According to Zurabishvili, cryptocurrency mining plays a significant role in the price increase, as, in her assessment, mining companies receive energy either for free or at preferential rates.

“A serious share of the electricity price increase is due to the free (or subsidized) energy allocated to Bitcoin mining enterprises. This is what the head of the regulatory commission calls increased consumption!

What Ivanishvili and others do not pay for running their profitable businesses represents precisely the investment shortfall that should have been used to rehabilitate the grid, build new infrastructure, or maintain tariffs.

In other words, members of the ruling team are getting richer, foreign investors (South Korea, Turkey) are being pushed away - even at the cost of large penalties - and ordinary consumers are suffering.

There are two outcomes: utility costs for citizens are rising (inflation is also expected), while the quality of supply is not improving.

And the country’s dependence on Russian imports is increasing more and more. That’s the reality!” wrote Salome Zurabishvili.