We cannot afford the luxury of giving up cheap Russian energy for political reasons - Narmania

"Because of tariff sensitivity, we do not have the luxury of giving up relatively cheap Russian energy for political reasons," said Davit Narmania, chairman of Georgia's National Energy and Water Regulatory Commission.

Should the sanctions be extended and Inter RAO's subsidiary Telmiko be affected, Narmania said, it would not disrupt the power supply:

"We have been receiving electricity from Russia for several months now because it is cheaper than in Turkey and Azerbaijan. However, because of the sensitivity to tariffs, we do not have the luxury of rejecting relatively cheap Russian energy for political reasons, but if for some reason it is limited, or an embargo is imposed, or anything else, there is really no energy crisis in the country, because there are definitely alternative sources of electricity.

If the circle of sanctioned companies extends and if the subsidiaries from the Inter RAO Group in Tbilisi, such as Telmico and others, be included in the list of sanctioned companies, this will not be an obstacle in terms of power supply, because one of the main roles and functions of the regulatory commission is to appoint a special manager in this case and make payments, transactions through the internal banking system and the client will not feel anything" - said Davit Narmania at a briefing.