Finance Minister rejects “even a theoretical possibility” of Georgia being used to circumvent of sanctions

There is “not even a theoretical possibility” of Georgia being used to circumvent sanctions placed on Russia and Belarus since the start of the former’s invasion of Ukraine, Georgian Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili said on Monday in his rejection of TV reports on a radio transmitting device having been sent to Belarus from Georgia.

The comment followed a report by TV Pirveli channel on Saturday, which alleged an American-made radio transmitting and receiving device had been sent by a Georgian-based company through an intermediary country and eventually to Belarus. 

• Georgian Revenue Service rejects “misinformation” about sending radio transmitting device to Belarus, circumventing sanctions

Khutsishvili joined the call by the Revenue Service, which demanded the channel “provide proof” of the allegation of sanctions circumvention as presented in the programme.

Given that these allegations relate to an American multinational company with offices in Georgia and other countries, we are in daily contact with our partners and will share this information with them. In this part, there can be no question regarding Georgia, based on the fact that all operations that were carried out in Georgia having been legal. This once again demonstrates that there is not even a theoretical possibility that Georgia will be used to circumvent the sanctions", Khutsishvili said.

In its response to the report on Sunday, the Revenue Service said that Communicom LLC, a company representing Motorola Solutions in Georgia, had declared the radio device in customs for export to an Uzbek company that operated as the official representative of Motorola in the latter country.

The Service noted the mentioned device did not require a dual-purpose export permit and had been imported “many times before”. It also said whether exported goods remained in the destination country or were ultimately forwarded to another state did not “fall within the competence” of state agencies operating in Georgia.

The state body noted TV Pirveli channel had not requested any information before airing its story, and accused the media outlet of spreading “misinformation” with the aim of “misleading the public and discrediting the agency”.