A decision by the Georgian Dream government to allow the shipment of reportedly 3,000 tons of gasoline across the occupation line into Russian-occupied Abkhazia has triggered concerns that the fuel could be diverted further into Russia or used to support Russia’s military presence in the region.
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze confirmed that fuel had entered occupied Abkhazia from Tbilisi-controlled territory, but said the shipment was carried out by a private business, not directly by the government.
Critics have argued that the shipments raise serious questions, with high likelyhood that the fuel will not end up in neighboring Russian regions, including Sochi, or be used by the Russian military.
Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is in his fifth year in prison, claimed in a Facebook post communicated from jail that only a small portion of the gasoline remained in Abkhazia and that the rest was going to southern Russia, where fuel prices have risen following Ukrainian strikes. These claims have not been independently confirmed.
Nika Gvaramia, leader of the opposition Ahali party, said the shipment was likely part of “a scheme created to help Russia circumvent sanctions and purchase goods of strategic objectives.”
Roman Gotsiridze, a former opposition MP and former head of Georgia’s National Bank, argued that the fuel could amount to supplying Russian military bases in occupied Abkhazia and might ultimately benefit Russian-controlled fuel structures.
Georgian Dream officials have rejected the criticism. They have also not said whether Georgia received anything in return, such as, for example, allowing Georgian-language education in Gali — Abkhazia’s easternmost region, where ethnic Georgians still remain after the province’s Georgian population was largely ethnically cleansed amid mass killings in 1993. Georgian-language instruction in Gali was banned several years ago.
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