The FINANCIAL -- According to Civil Georgia, president Saakashvili praised Lasha Zhvania, who was sacked by PM Gilauri on August 21 from the post of Economy Minister, as “talented person” whose experience should be further used in a field “where it is most needed” for the country.,

The FINANCIAL -- According to Civil Georgia, Sokhumi will resort to “proportional measures” to protect vessels en route to Abkhazia if Tbilisi continues their detention, Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, said in his appeal to UN, EU and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on August 18.

The FINANCIAL -- According to Civil Georgia, Stanislav Lakoba, secretary of breakaway Abkhazia’s national security council, said he had filed for resignation because of his disagreement with the leadership over law on citizenship and “other issues” which he did not specify, Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported on August 18.

The FINANCIAL -- According to Civil Georgia, with year-long formal procedures required for quitting Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) finalized, Georgia formally quit the organization on August 18.

The FINANCIAL -- According to Civil Georgia, a lawmaker from the parliamentary minority group, Gia Tortladze, said tabled a draft law excluding former Communist Party functionaries and officers of and collaborators with the ex-Soviet secret service KGB from serving in the state structures - a process known as lustration.