Who Owned Georgia English.pdf

Soso Akubardia owned 47.92 ha. of land in Anaklia, a BlackSea village near the administrative border of Abkhazia. OnSeptember 8, 2009, President Saakashvili declared Anaklia wouldbe a new center for tourism on the Black Sea and he contractedSpanish architects to draw up a development plan. Akubardia’sproperty, which he had owned since 2007, was one of 150 plots ofland that suddenly ended up registered to the state on December6, 2009. Essentially, the Ministry of Economic Developmentrequested the land and the regional authorities, the ZugdidiRegistration Office of the Public Registry, gave it to them. InAkubardia’s case, the cadaster number of his registered plot hadbeen changed in the public registry, leaving him with 1.5 ha ofland. He filed for the restoration of his original title, which thecourt rejected. His land had by this time become the property ofAnaklia-Port. 313On October 20th, 2009, Anaklia-Port was awarded thecontract to construct a regional transport hub that would includea port, cargo airport, infrastructure for rail and roadways and apower and engineering services for the new settlement. Anaklia-Port agreed to invest $5 billion in these facilities before 2013. Inreturn, it received about 2,113 ha. of land, or 298 individual plots,for 6,340,445 GEL (USD 3,830,656). 314On June 10th, 2010, Karchava sold Anaklia Port LLC andits multi-million dollar property to Olimp Management Ltd,registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) for a mere 2000GEL ($1,210). On September 27, Olimp’s sole director, Ria Klein,appointed Karchava the director and Chairman of the Board ofDirectors of Anaklia Port LLC. 315In The summer of 2012, the government sequestered theproperty, claiming the company did not meet the constructiondeadline. Karchava argues that the government cancelled thedeal after Saakashvili had announced his plans to build Lazika,313 Ibid Page 9314 Ibid Page 10315 Ibid Page 1177