The appearance of a tanker with sanctioned Russian oil in Batumi port has triggered chain of events that could impact both Georgia’s domestic politics and further deepen its confrontation with the Ukrainian Government.
The news first emerged when David Arakhamia, top aide to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly and repeatedly accused the Georgian Government of helping Russia of designing schemes to help Russia circumvent international sanctions.
The Georgian Government confirmed sanctioned Russian oil did indeed enter Batumi port, but was turned away after the oil’s origin was ascertained.
Georgian opposition, however, claims the ship would never be able to enter the port in the first place without the prior Government consent issued at the highest level.
Droa party leader Helen Khoshtaria says the scheme in place includes change documents of the cargo’s origin.
Georgia’s Economy Ministry had earlier said the vessel sailing under a Turkish flag was allowed to enter the port on June 26 because neither the ship nor its owner were sanctioned.
Khoshtaria specifically accused Russian and Swedish citizen of Georgian origin and billionnaire David Yakobashvili to be behind the scheme. Mr Yakobashvili had been engaged in oil trading in Georgia for years.
"He signed a partnership agreement with RosNeft in 2014 and 49% of his company Petrocas was acquired by RosNeft. Formal documents were converted after the sanctions. Yakobashvili is directly linked with Alexander Yevtushenkov, another sanctioned Russian oligarch. The same Yevtushenkov who talked to Bidzina Ivanishvili on the phone and called him “Borinka”. Georgia is involved in this informal pyramid of corrupt economic management. The role of Ucha Mamatsashvili, Bidzina Ivanishvili’s cousin and Grigol Liluashvili [Director of the State Security Service] in this scheme must be studied because it is a fact that state agencies let the sanctioned cargo through and received it in the Georgian port, " Khoshtaria said.
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