Ruling party head: EU ambassadors “practically demanded” Gov’t impose sanctions on Russia

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday claimed ambassadors of European Union countries had “practically demanded” from the Georgian Government to impose sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in their meeting with Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili on Monday.

Kobakhidze said the diplomats had conveyed the position not only in their “oral demarche” but also in a “document” indicating their alleged position.

The EU ambassadors practically demanded from us to impose sanctions on Russia, which was a kind of surprise. Both the opposition - including the radical opposition - and our [Western] partners had claimed they were not asking for [the] sanctions [to be imposed by the Government on Russia], but now we see a different approach”, the party official claimed.

Our position on sanctions remains unchanged - we are not imposing sanctions on the Russian Federation”, Kobakhidze said during his comments at a plenary session in the Parliament.

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Firstly, of course, imposition of the sanctions would be a step towards escalation [with Russia], and we cannot allow the escalation to deepen - we must protect the security of our country and people. And secondly, from the economic point of view, of course, sanctions would have the most severe consequences for us, our country and people”, he said.

When you impose sanctions on someone, the purpose of this should be to punish them, [but] [by imposing these] sanctions [the Government] [would be] punishing not them but [our] own country and people - this is, of course, an absurdity, and we cannot do it”, Kobakhidze added.

He also noted Georgia’s share in Russia’s total trade was 0.3 percent and said the figure meant sanctions by Georgia would not create “any problems” for the Kremlin while they would “shrink the Georgian economy by between 10 and 18 percent” and “cost it $2.5 or $4.5 billion” without any compensation options available from the EU.

“In such conditions, the demand for sanctions is absolutely incomprehensible”, he concluded.