Public broadcaster to live stream Georgian billionaire's press conference

Public broadcaster to live stream Georgian billionaire's press conference

The Georgian Public Broadcaster said on Friday that it would broadcast live the press conference to be held by the south Caucasus country's billionaire-turned- politician Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Khatuna Berdzenishvili, chief of the news service of the Georgian Public Broadcaster, told local wire service InterPressNews about the decision.

Previously, three of the country's state-run public broadcasters turned down a request by the billionaire to live stream his planned press conference. The press conference may be held on Oct. 27 in the business center of Ivanishvili.

The billionaire made headlines time and again in recent days after the civil registry agency under the Georgian justice ministry said Ivanishvili did receive his Georgian citizenship on July 22, 2004, but the citizenship was deprived in accordance with the Georgian legislation after he had been granted citizenship of the Republic of France later that same year.

The ministerial statement has actually deprived the billionaire's right to launch a political party or finance one in Georgia.

According to the existing Georgian constitution, a person with dual citizenship cannot serve as Georgia's president, prime minister, parliamentary speaker or lawmaker. The same constitution also enables the state to impose restriction on political activities of those without Georgian citizenship in the country.

Some members of parliament from the ruling United National Movement criticized the billionaire for using Russian money to " buy the future of Georgia for (Vladimir) Putin."

"There will never be Russian money in the Georgian politics, " said Pavle Kublashvili, a ruling party MP who chairs the parliamentary committee for legal affairs, "No politics will ever be made in Georgia with money lent or granted by Putin. We should spare no effort in order to protect the Georgian politics from the Russian money."

Editor: yan

English.news.cn   2011-10-22 02:32:04 FeedbackPrintRSS
TBILISI, Oct. 21 (Xinhua)