EU, US sanctions officials’ visit “sign” Tbilisi should stop aiding Russia – opposition MP

Roman Gotsiridze, an opposition MP, on Thursday claimed the latest visit of three sanctions officials from the EU and the US was a “sign” Tbilisi “should stop supporting Russia” as he said in evading sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine last year. 

 

The lawmaker said the visit of David O’Sullivan, the European Union Sanctions Envoy, James O’Brien, the Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination in the United States President Joe Biden administration, and Kumar Iyer, the Director General for Economics, Science and Technology at the United Kingdom Foreign Office earlier this week had been preceded by their comments that Russian had used Turkey, Armenia, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia and  Kazakhstan to circumvent the sanctions. 

 

He said the officials have visited and are now visiting the countries that had been suspected in aiding Moscow to obtain electronics and microelectronics used in its military production. 

 

“Why didn’t they come to Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia? Imports to Armenia, as well as from Armenia to Russia, have increased incredibly, this is statistics”, Gotsiridze said. 

 

He claimed the visiting officials had refrained from speaking about imposing sanctions on Georgia as it would cause “drastic consequences” for the country, adding discussions behind closed doors would concern the issue. 

 

In their press comments, the sanctions officials said the visit aimed at strengthening cooperation with Georgia to ensure the effective enforcement of sanctions, praising the work of domestic agencies to prevent Russia from evading the sanctions. 

 

Khatia Dekanoidze, an opposition MP, said the absence of evidence so far that Russia could use Georgia to evade the sanctions was “definitely positive” for the country. 

 

The government representatives have accused the opposition of “speculations” over the visit and damaging national interests by “unfounded claims” on Russia’s using the Georgian territory to evade the sanctions.