Press Digest 29.01.2014
Russian soldiers raid Armenian village in Abkhazia
Uncontrollable depreciation of GEL sparks countrywide backlash
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Russian soldiers raid Armenian village in Abkhazia
“Intoxicated Russian soldiers have reportedly assaulted a number of Armenians in Achadara, a village near Sukhumi. Apparently, the occupants also pillaged the locals, robbing 8 Armenian households for money and gold.
As Armenian media outlets report, the Russian occupants also physically assaulted several people; the list of victims allegedly includes a 76 year-old Lusia Kochariani, who was immediately taken to a local hospital after the incident,”- reports the publication Rezonansi.
The Abkhazian side as well as the Armenian community has denied reports about the alleged assault; however, representatives of the Georgian and Armenian Diaspora claim that the incident did actually take place.
Still, information about the incident is being suppressed for obvious reasons. As you know, several days ago a terrible tragedy occurred in Armenia’s region of Gyumri, where Russian border guards detained Valery Permyakov, a Russian military deserter suspected of killing a family of six in Gyumri.
These brutal multiple homicides prompted a massive backlash from the Armenians,”- says the article.
However, Abkhazia’s de-facto Minister Raul Lolua has fiercely denied reports about the alleged assault. According to him, the incident never happened and false reports are being spread deliberately in order to provoke the public.
“I do emphasize this incident did not take place in the region,”- declared Lolua, adding that Armenians are safe in Abkhazia.
Likewise, Chairman of the Armenian Community Seyran Ichmelian labels the recently released information as false and adds that a 76-year-old lady, who was allegedly severely beaten by the Russians, does not even live in the village of Achadara.
However, chairman of NGO “Multinational Georgia” Arnold Stepanian maintains that the Russian military has actually assaulted and plundered those Armenian families recently, and the Armenian side is just trying to hide this information.
"As our Armenian colleagues have notified us, the incident did actually occur in the village; no details regarding it have been provided yet; clearly though, both sides seek to defuse the situation and prevent it from becoming something more terrible,”- states Stepanian.
Uncontrollable depreciation of GEL sparks countrywide backlash
"In today’s Georgia, GEL keeps depreciating; the process is out of control. $1 equals 2.03 GEL today and everyday items keep getting more costly. However, both the government and the National Bank are doing next to nothing to rectify the situation.
PM Gharibashvili met with an economic group to discuss the issue; after this, the public strongly expected that the government would apply some effective measures to keep the GEL stable. However, believe it or not, after this meeting the GEL depreciated again. Despite this, the National Bank did not intervene,”- reports the Rezonansi publication.
The weakened GEL has already resulted in higher prices; medication and other items are ratcheting up across the country, and without positive changes, we will face a much worse situation in the immediate future,”- writes the author of the article.
"According to our experts, law enforcement agencies must look into the issue and figure out what caused the steep depreciation of GEL in December, 2014.
However, today they cannot improve the situation by intervening in the process. The National Bank should simply try to control the process by keeping the value of GEL stable. By rights, further devaluation of GEL is not expected. Though, if it does, we will be faced with an alarmingly bad situation,”- states expert Gia Khukhashvili.
