PM Kobakhidze accuses Western officials of double standards on Russia trade

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has once again criticized what he described as “double standards” from Western officials regarding trade with Russia and calls for sanctions.

Responding to a journalist’s question, Kobakhidze said that several European officials have acknowledged the scale of their own financial flows to Russia, despite pressuring Georgia to impose sanctions.

“Previously, a foreign minister of a European country made the same statement. In reality, if we compare their foreign trade with Russia to the funds transferred to Ukraine, the amount going to Russia exceeds the amount sent to Ukraine. This is clearly a double standard,” the Prime Minister said.

Kobakhidze argued that while certain European politicians and former members of the US administration were demanding that Georgia impose sanctions on Moscow, those same countries were simultaneously expanding their commercial relations with Russia.

“They were asking Georgia to impose sanctions, yet they themselves were engaged in intensified trade with the Russian Federation,” he said.

The Prime Minister also cited the example of Lithuania and Latvia, noting that after the start of the war in Ukraine, the two countries “sold four times more wine to Russia than Georgia did,” despite not being wine-producing nations.

“These are double standards, and this latest statement only reminds us of them once again,” Kobakhidze added.