“Georgia is taking very seriously its commitment not to allow its territory to be used for the circumvention of sanctions, whether that is trade in goods, particularly the 38 battlefield products or financial services,” said EU Sanctions Envoy, David O’Sullivan, who is visiting Georgia with his US and UK colleagues.
On the issue of the newly introduced sanctions on automobiles, David O’Sullivan said that “If people in Georgia were to be importing European automobiles with a view to selling them to Russia, that would indeed be a circumvention. We have no evidence that that is the case for the moment, but I think the Georgian authorities are alerted to this issue, and we will be following closely how this develops in the coming weeks and months.”
Automobiles are the third largest exporting commodity from Georgia to the Russian Federation. In 5M2023, a total of 2,943 cars were shipped from Georgia to Russia, the value of which was USD 41 million. The exports have increased by 458% y-o-y.
