Josh Keating over on FP gives us the top 10 stories you might have missed in 2008. I particularly like this one:
So why was $176 million of the aid money earmarked for loans to businesses—including $30 million to a real estate developer for a luxury hotel: the 127,000-square-meter Park Hyatt in downtown Tbilisi, an area that was not at all damaged in the war? The 183-room, five-star hotel will include 70 luxury condominiums, a fine-dining restaurant, conference facilities, and a health spa with juice bar.
No answer is given, but I think you could make a stab at it.
There are actually lots of new plush hotels being built in Tbilisi at the moment, and the Park Hyatt is just another. I was told all about them when I was in Georgia in September. I have sent an email to a friend in Georgia asking for some details but as best I can remember the firm building the Park Hyatt is backed by one of those nice oligarchs. That oligarch has particular connections to George Bush’s brother Neil.
Not that I’m implying anything untoward, mind you. I won’t say anything else unless I have some information confirmed.
