Ivanishvili and Abastumani: Transparency International-Georgia Report

JAMnews

Tbilisi

Ivanishvili in Abastumani

One of the interests of the former Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili is the resort of Abastumani. Construction in the village has been going on for more than five years.

The billionaire completely changed the life of the town — buying up up sanatoriums, land, and closing the city to cars.

Abastumani may thus become an international resort centered on the residence of the Ivanishvili family.

The NGO Transparency International-Georgia studied the progress of the project and published a special report. It says that the entire state machine of the country is involved in the project, along with companies associated with Ivanishvili, and there are signs of corruption.

According to the report, the example of Abastumni shows how Bidzina Ivanishvili uses state institutions and resources to manipulate the environment in which he undertakes his own business projects, and how the state quickly and without any objections sends budgetary resources his way.

Abastumani is not Ivanishvili’s first ambitious project in Georgia. Prior to that, he built a dendrological park in Shekvetili, on the Black Sea coast, for the arrangement of which he uprooted giant perennial trees from different places and transported them to Shekvetili.

The Panorama-Tbilisi project, which is supposed to change the face of the old districts of Tbilisi, is also his brainchild. Environmentalists and urban planners have criticized Ivanishvili for this project.

One of Ivanishvili’s latest whims is the transfer of 125,000 square meters of forest land in Ivanishvili’s native village of Chorvila for 49 years to a company 100% owned by Ivanishvili’s wife Ekaterina Khvedelidze. Under the terms of the auction, this forest must be “fenced” with a net.

From the study it becomes clear that Ivanishvili can buy any territory or village in Georgia and carry out any project he wishes.

Abastumani’s new life began after Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family went there to swim in early August 2018.

Ivanishvili stayed at the Abastumani Residence Hotel. The manager of the hotel told reporters that the billionaire carefully examined the resort, was surprised by the poor state of the infrastructure, “called someone and said to immediately prepare the project.”

Two weeks after Ivanishvili’s visit, life in Abastumani changed radically.

Coastal View, a company associated with Ivanishvili, purchased at auction for 3,540,000 lari [about $1.3 million] the territory and buildings of the former tuberculosis sanatorium in Abastumani, as well as two adjacent plots with buildings and structures thereon.

The Cartu Foundation has built a new hospital three kilometers from Abastumani, and the billionaire is building a residence on the site of the old one.

Soon, the entire state machine went into motion behind Ivanishvili’s project.

◤Abastumani is one of the most famous mountain and balneological resorts in the country. It is located in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, in the municipality of Adigeni, in an evergreen valley 260 km from Tbilisi. The territory of the village is covered with coniferous forest, mostly pine. Patients with lung diseases have been going there since the 1930s. Later, several sanatoriums were built there, including a tuberculosis center. There are also thermal waters with healing properties in Abastumni. The village is also important because there is an astrophysical observatory, and other cultural, educational and medical institutions◢

The first thing Ivanishvili did was to buy the main sanatoriums of Abastumani, “Zekari” and “Rainbow”.

Then he went beyond the resort area and bought the Autograph Collection hotel.

A few days after Ivanishvili’s visit to Abastumani, on August 15, the Municipal Development Fund announced a bid for the creation of a master plan for the development of Abastumani.

In just one month the United Water Supply Company of Georgia signed purchases worth four million lari [about $1.5 million] for the reconstruction of the system. Chemical and microbiological studies on the water were also carried out.

Two months later, Ivanishvili took the initiative to completely close the resort to cars. According to his decision, only electric cars are permitted there, and he promised to sell electric cars to local residents himself. The Municipal Development Fund immediately began to fulfill this initiative – twice a bid was announced for nine million lari [about $3.3 million] for the construction of a huge parking lot at the entrance to Abastumani.

Because of this initiative, the construction of the 60-kilometer Abastumani-Baghdati road was suspended, since, according to the project, cars would then pass through Abastumani, which would pollute the air there. Construction moved to the Abastumni bypass road in Sairme, and the road authority signed agreements totaling 93 million lari [about $35 million]. This road will pass through the Emerald Network protected area, which will require cutting down 10-15 kilometers of forest. Environmentalists believe that legally protected animals would be in serious danger, so activists are appealing this decision in court.

A few months after Ivanishvili’s visit to Abastumani, the issue of fire safety in the Abastumani forest appeared on the agenda — the municipal development fund announced bid tender for 15 million lari [about $5.6 million] to create a fire safety system for Abastumani.

A year and a half later the construction of footpaths began in the Abastumn forest, for which the Agency for Protected Areas at the first stage signed contracts worth more than 800,000 lari [about $300,000].

Later, the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage also joined the cause, which took up the restoration of the Glazenap Tower, the unofficial name of the building built in 1892 for astronomical observations in Abastumani. And for the further rehabilitation of the monastery complex, archaeological research was launched, for which contracts were signed for a total of 126,697 lari [about $47,000].

Transparency International-Georgia also found out that out of eighteen entities that have bought land in Abastumani since August 2018, fourteen of which are associated with Georgian Dream, nine directly related to Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Since the advent of Georgian Dream until today, contracts worth 268 million lari [about $100.5 million] have been signed in Abastumani, with 93% of them since August 2018, i.e. from the moment when Ivanishvili became interested in Abastumani.

The report also shows that more than 83% of these public procurements were received by those companies that donated funds to the Georgian Dream party at different times.

Ivanishvili in Abastumani