Donetsk–Tbilisi: new 'trade links' with occupied territory?
Donetsk–Tbilisi links
On 19 March 2026, Russian and Abkhaz government-backed news agencies reported that an agreement had been signed to export coal and metal between the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Georgia.
According to the so-called prime minister of the “DPR”, Andrey Chertkov, the agreement with the Georgian company George Oil Limited has now officially come into force. Russian agencies say the company regularly takes part in state procurement in Georgia and supplies fuel to public institutions.
George Oil Limited is a Georgian company specialising in international trade, including in the energy sector. At the 2025 Eastern Economic Forum, it signed a memorandum with the International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, providing for bilateral supplies to companies in Russia’s Far East. The company is one of the main players in Georgia’s public procurement market and regularly wins tenders to supply fuel to state institutions.
Comment from the head of George Oil Limited
The company’s head, Valerian Kochiashvili, said in a phone call with Radio Liberty that work is under way on concrete proposals. The products will be sold in Georgia on a permanent basis and this will “strengthen the economic position” of the so-called DPR. According to Kochiashvili, he managed to establish business ties with Donetsk on his own within a few days.
“We need to establish links as quickly as possible so that this ‘bacchanalia’ ends. There is coal there — the Russians took it from the Ukrainians — and I want to build ties with Russia. First we will sign this agreement, then we will look at wheat, sunflower and salt,” he said.
Who is Kochiashvili?
Valerian Kochiashvili is a former serviceman who drew public attention in 2025 after insulting the German ambassador and his wife in Batumi. In addition to George Oil, he owns several other businesses. His partner, Amiran Surmanidze, lives in Russia but is not directly involved in the company’s operations.
Videos posted on Kochiashvili’s TikTok channel in March suggest that he visited not only occupied territories of Ukraine during that period, but also Rostov, pointing to broader trade and logistics links.
Sanctions and export context
According to open-source data, coal exported from the Russian-occupied Donbas is documented as Russian-origin. Its main export markets are China (40%), India (19%) and Turkey (11%). Both coal and metals from occupied Ukrainian territories are first transported by rail into Russia and then shipped onward by sea.
The Russian government uses such schemes to circumvent sanctions. Investigations have found that the company Energoresurs, owned by the son of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, was involved in the trade of Russian coal in Turkey, which sold more than 500,000 tonnes of coal from Russia in 2023–2024.
Donetsk–Tbilisi links
