Who Owned Georgia English.pdf

into the government’s PR machine. According to its formerowners, it wasn’t an entirely voluntary transformation.Rustavi 2 was established in 1996 and owned by ErosiKitsmarishvili, David Dvali and Jarji Akimidze. 9 Kitsmarishvili,the station’s director, considers himself part of the RoseRevolution team. According to Nino Zuriashvili, an investigativereporter that worked for Rustavi 2, the government took amore active role in his business affairs shortly after the RoseRevolution.Kitsmarishvili, who owned one-third of Rustavi 2’sshares, was trying to negotiate terms to buy out his partners, JarjiAkimidze and Davit Dvali, who owned the controlling block ofshares and refused to sell. On June 11th, 2004, Kitsmarishvilipublicly announced bankruptcy, claiming the station was 9.2million GEL in debt, including 4.6 million owed to the state. Thenews took Akimidze and Dvali by surprise. 10“The debt didn’t exist two months before bankruptcy,”Akimidze said.Kitsmarishvili now admits that he had inflated the debt sohe could file for bankruptcy. Georgian law states that ownersof a company lose their rights to make business decisions afterbankruptcy proceedings have started. In this case, the owners ofRustavi 2 would not have been able to run their company andfaced the risk of losing their other business, internet provider“Georgia Online,” as well as their homes, which were registeredon Rustavi 2 property. 11“From the moment I applied, their situation was verydifficult. In fact, it depended on the good will of the authorities.9 Public Registry. Ministry of Justice of Georgia Page 9 https://enreg.reestri.gov.ge/main.php?c=app&m=view_doc&doc_id=76221 Accessed on 05/12/201210 Media after the Rose Revolution. Studio Monitor Investigation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-vefDcvLZY Shortened written version available athttp://shokoladi.ge/content/54-nabijit-ukan Accessed on 05/12/201211 Ibid9