Ukraine: Russia uses Georgia to smuggle sanctioned goods, including military equipment

Russia uses Georgia to smuggle sanctioned goods

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russia is establishing a smuggling route through the territory of Georgia. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the political leadership of Georgia agreed with Russia on the smuggling of sanctioned products through its territory.

“Due to the introduction of international sanctions, the Russian Federation has lost the opportunity to receive military, dual-use and civilian goods.

To circumvent the sanctions, Russian agents are creating smuggling routes that pass through the territory of Georgia.

At the same time, representatives of the Georgian special services received a directive from the political leadership not to interfere with the activities of smugglers”, the intelligence report says.

Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk said in an interview with the Formula TV channel that this refers to the smuggling of the military equipment.

“If this is true – and I have no reason not to trust our special services if they made it public – then how is this possible?

Why do you give the Georgian government the right to order the Georgian special services to turn a blind eye to all this?

You say that you apologised on the behalf of the Georgian people, thank you very much, but why do you give this right to your prime minister and your government, which, unfortunately, does not understand what will happen in the future if we do not stop Russia and Putin today.

I cannot believe that you Georgians, our sisters and brothers, would allow the weapons that kill our women and children to pass through smuggling channels. Is it possible? Ask yourself, how did it happen, why did it happen the way it did? What have we done [ to allow this]?”, Vereshchuk said.

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Western countries plan to impose new sanctions against Russia because of the atrocities committed in the city of Bucha near Kyiv. This was stated by European Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Many European leaders reacted to the incident. French President Emmanuel Macron said that “the Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes”.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the State Department will help Ukraine document the atrocities committed by the Russian military against the civilian population of Ukraine.

Georgia has not imposed any sanctions against Russia.