National Bank Acting President discusses sanctions enforcement with British Ambassador

Natia Turnava, an Acting President of the National Bank of Georgia, on Friday discussed the institution’s efforts to enforce the international sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in a meeting with Mark Clayton, the British Ambassador to Georgia. 

The discussion also involved the controversial recent decree by the Bank earlier this month that exempted Georgian citizens from international sanctions without judgment of domestic courts, the NBG said. 

The diplomat received “detailed information” about the amendment that involved a “refinement of the international sanctions enforcement process and bringing it into compliance with domestic laws”, the institution added. 

Describing the United Kingdom as Georgia’s “strategic ally”, Turnava said she had offered the Bank’s arguments over the amendment to the Ambassador, and expressed readiness for “intensive cooperation” to improve regulations to “remove all question marks” over the decree. 

She also highlighted the country and the NBG remained “committed” to the international sanctions imposed on Russia. 

Turnava signed the decree following the United States Department of States’ sanctioning of Otar Partskhaladze, Georgia’s former Prosecutor General, for alleged cooperation with Russian intelligence on September 14.

She claimed the amendment - a U-turn of the Bank’s earlier decision to sanction Partskhaladze - was “in line” with the country’s Constitution and presumption of innocence, and concerned “all citizens of the country, not specific individuals”. 

She also pledged to detail the country’s partners about the decree to prevent controversy around the decision, amid allegations by the domestic opposition and the country’s President that the reversal of the earlier decree had been made to secure Partskhaladze’s property.