The CE Blog

A date has been announced for Bidzina Ivanishvili’s eagerly awaited first ever TV press conference.

Bidzina Ivanishvili’s press office said that an agreement had been reached with the public TV station that the press conference would be held on November 1st at 4pm local time, and would be aired live by GPB for about 30-40 minutes.

The public broadcaster has yet to confirm the agreement but they had previously offered to provide coverage if a press conference was arranged.

In separate statements the billionaire’s press office have again complained about pressure being applied to the billionaire’s Kartu Group, his supporters and his family members, including visits by President Mikhail Saakashvili’s National Movement activists who have been visiting employees of the Kartu Group at their homes and “advising” them to quit their jobs to avoid “problems in the future”.

In another incident one of Ivanishvili’s aides was detained for over four hours at Tbilisi airport, upon his arrival from Moscow carrying some papers connected with the revocation of Ivanishvili’s Russian citizenship, which he had previously said he was freely giving up in order to focus his time and attention to his homeland. As well as the papers the aide was carrying several copies of a children’s magazine called “Energiya Kamney” (Energy of Stones), intended for Ivanishvili’s 14-year old daughter. The magazines contained small samples of stones for children to collect.

Shalva Tadumadze, one of Ivanishvili’s legal team, says that he has been told by investigators that they were tipped-off about possible smuggling of “radioactive material” by the aide and for that reason they sent rock samples from the magazine issues to a laboratory for testing.

“Of course it’s simply a pretext; in fact it was one of those many moves undertaken by the authorities to target their political opponent Bidzina Ivanishvili,” Tadumadze told Civil.ge, adding that the aide was told by investigators not to leave the country pending laboratory test results.

The Interior Ministry confirmed that the aide was questioned in the Tbilisi airport; Shota Utiashvili, head of the ministry’s information and analytical department, however, said: “It’s all over now.” He told Civil.ge that it was “simply a questioning after which Levin was released.” He denied that Levin was not allowed to leave the country.

U.S. Ambassador John Bass, following his recent meeting with Ivanishvili during he listened to complaints made about the pressure being exerted on him by the government, said that the U.S. Embassy is “closely watching the events and if necessary we will discuss the questions with Georgian government”.

The Ambassador also underlined previous messages that Parliamentary as well Presidential elations should be conducted in a democratic environment. For this, many steps should be made. He noted that much more should be done in this respect.

 
 ”We are interested to support Georgia in strengthening democratic institutions, to conduct elections in a peaceful environment. It is very important that the next cycle of elations should be legitimate and democratic”, Bass said.