Politico: Georgia is one of the countries helping Russia evade sanctions

POLITICO: Georgia helping Russia evade sanctions

The American publication Politico writes that the US has identified five countries helping Russia evade sanctions, one of which is Georgia. The publication is based on a speech by U.S. State Department sanctions coordinator Jim O’Brien at the annual meeting of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“The US has identified five countries in particular that are causing the circumvention problem [of sanctions]: Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates, and Armenia,” the article says.

As O’Brien notes, after the start of the war in Ukraine, the G7 countries stopped delivering equipment to Russia, although exports to other countries such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan increased. These countries have become major suppliers of Western products to Russia, and the United States is negotiating with these countries to solve the important problem of circumventing sanctions.

The trouble is, O’Brien says, that European companies sell materials to other countries, and then these countries sell these materials to Russia.

“Exports of basic chips and electronics that Russia needs for its war machine have returned to pre-war levels as Russia has become better at evading sanctions. By early this year, Russia was able to reimport certain key categories of electronics at roughly pre-war levels, i.e. the chips, processors and integrated circuits needed to manufacture modern weapons.

You know what’s at stake. Your economy is in danger. You get most of your income based on relationships with Europe, USA and Japan. Why risk everything for a few deals?” O’Brien said.

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Aluda Gudushauri, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, commented on James O’Brien’s statement as follows:

“All this time, almost for several years, lies continue to be circulated, and unfortunately we hear statements that damage the image. How could it happen that in two years not a single piece of evidence could be brought forward.”

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, many countries — the US, EU countries, the UK, Japan, Australia, and others — have introduced several packages of sanctions against Russia, both collective and unilateral.

These sanctions concern the financial, energy and transport sectors, exports and imports, and visa policy. Sanctions have also been imposed against officials, oligarchs and people close to Putin. The Western world hopes that the Russian government will not withstand this pressure and stop the war against Ukraine.

Georgia has not imposed sanctions against Russia. Moreover, from February 24 to the present, members of the Georgian government have been insistently repeating that Georgia does not join the sanctions imposed by the West. Ukraine is dissatisfied with this position of Georgia and openly expresses its dissatisfaction.

The President of Georgia and individual departments have repeatedly noted that Georgia adheres to the sanctions imposed against Russia, and will not help anyone avoid them.

POLITICO: Georgia helping Russia evade sanctions