Georgian PM: those pushing Georgia for sanctions were engaged in intensified trade with Russia

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Tuesday said that Western criticism of Georgia’s trade relations with Russia reflects “double standards”, arguing that some European and former US officials demanding sanctions from Georgia were themselves engaged in intensified trade with Moscow.

Kobakhidze responded to the statement of the US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who said that from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to US President Trump’s return to office in January 2025, the nations of Europe had provided more money to Russia than Ukraine and by a long shot.

“Earlier, the Foreign Minister of one of the European countries also made this statement. In fact, if we take our foreign trade with Russia and the funds transferred to Ukraine, the funds transferred to Russia exceed the funds transferred to Ukraine. Of course, this is a double standard and, in this context, we should remember the demands that specific people, Europeans and representatives of the former American administration, made to the Georgian Government when they demanded that Georgia impose sanctions [against Russia]. They demanded that we impose sanctions and they themselves had active trade with Russia”, the PM said.

“I would like to remind you that Lithuania and Latvia sold four times more wine to Russia than Georgia, after the war began, when neither country was a wine-producing country. These are double standards and this statement once again reminds us of these double standards”, he concluded.