Ruling party head: Georgia maintaining trade relations with Russia "neither illegal nor immoral”

The fact that Georgia maintains trade relations with Russia amid the latter's invasion of Ukraine is" neither illegal nor immoral", particularly when Ukraine itself maintains trade with Russia, Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said on Tuesday.

Kobakhidze said the Georgian Government's "stated position" of keeping the trade ties with the country did not contradict "any other principles".

Ukraine also maintains trade relations with Russia. In particular, gas supply is delivered from Russia to Ukraine, including for [the latter's] own consumption, and then transferred to European Union member states. In other words, Ukraine is also involved in trade relations with Russia; therefore, the fact that Georgia maintains the trade relations is neither illegal nor immoral,” the GD official said.

The head of the ruling party also responded to a release of an unconfirmed audio recording of an alleged call between Russian businessman Vladimer Evtushenkov and former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili on Monday on YouTube. 

Whether it is authentic or not, no one knows this. Even if it is authentic, there’s nothing special in it. Even if we assume that it is authentic, there was talk about some kind of trade relationship [in the recording],” Kobakhidze noted.