We were very upset that no one took seriously the 2008 war - Gharibashvili on not joining sanctions

According to the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, there were two reasons for not joining the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia. As Gharibashvili says, the first reason is that Georgia's economy is very small, therefore the impact of the country if joining the sanctions against Russia would be very small.

According to him, while the trade volume of the European Union with Russia is 300 billion euros per year, this figure is only one billion for Georgia. According to him, the second reason for not joining the sanctions is that Georgia was very upset that "no one took the 2008 war seriously."

"Georgia's economy is very small and Georgia's trade with Russia is less than one billion, the European Union paid daily one billion euros to Russia last year, that is, Russia received 300 billion euros from the European Union last year, and the trade turnover from Georgia is only one billion per year, so our impact in case of economic sanctions would be 0 .3%, and the impact on our economy would be the most significant. Therefore, my opinion is this, when we are having this conversation, we are fully compliant with international financial sanctions, we are doing it. The US State Department, the European Union agencies, they all admitted that Georgia is fully compliant with international financial sanctions , but when it comes to trade and economic relations, this is something else. The EU trades with Russia, it has not cut off trade relations, and the US is the same, why should Georgia be an exception. The second reason is that we were very upset that no one took the 2008 war seriously, this is the reason," says Gharibashvili.