Parliament official: sanctions officials’ visit “put an end to speculation” on “black hole” in Georgia

Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament, on Thursday said this week’s visit of sanctions officials from the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States to the country had “put an end to the speculation” on the topic of enforcement of the international sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and said “no black hole exists or will exist in Georgia”.

Botchorishvili alleged the domestic opposition had used the topic of sanctions to “smear” the country’s image in the international arena.

In general, it is good that the officials have assessed the cooperation with the Georgian authorities in terms of the implementation of sanctions. It has been confirmed once again what we have been saying for a year - that despite not joining the EU sanctions [against Russia], Georgia is doing everything to prevent evasion of sanctions through our country”, Botchorishvili said. 

“This requires a great effort of the state agencies, a very mobilised work, which our state agencies are doing. Accordingly, this work was assessed positively, and seen by the relevant persons”, the Parliament official continued. 

She also it was “important” to continue to cooperate with international partners as “different sanctions packages and different rules apply to the implementation of sanctions”.

Unfortunately, this topic of sanctions was used by our opposition to smear Georgia in the international arena. We have heard it many times. I have also received questions from our [Western] partners about what we are doing to comply with the sanctions. This is the effect of the actions of our opposition in Georgia, when they try to portray Georgia as a black hole and create these misconceptions about their own country, which is very sad”, Botchorishvili noted.

“This visit put an end to these speculations. It is very good that this happened, because it has been proved once again that Georgia is ready to cooperate with our strategic partners and cooperates well. No black hole exists or will exist in Georgia”, she concluded.

The visiting officials from the EU, the UK and the US on Wednesday highlighted they had been “convinced” that the country’s Government was “seriously” determined not to allow the circumvention of sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.