According to Rati Ionatamishvili, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, Georgian legislation and sovereignty were fully respected during the delivery of fuel to occupied Abkhazia.
Responding to criticism from the opposition, he stated that “they were instructed at all costs, even through the dirtiest and most anti-Georgian steps, to disrupt the process of restoring trust in Georgian-Abkhaz relations.”
“Yesterday’s events and the coordinated attack by the radical opposition operating in our country against the attempt to restore Georgian-Abkhaz relations, along with the hysteria they stirred up against reconciliation, have once again shown: until Georgia’s political landscape is cleansed of these stateless foreign agents, the country will remain in a state of constant upheaval and political turbulence.
Let’s simply analyze yesterday’s hysteria by these agents. During the day, it became known that a private business imported several fuel tankers into Abkhazia. Naturally, all of this took place in full compliance with Georgia’s sovereignty and legislation. It was 3,000 tonnes, which amounts to a few tank trucks.
And what happens next? Absolutely all the agents lined up and began spreading a single message, claiming that this cargo was intended for the Russian armed forces, declaring their formal homeland—Georgia—to be virtually an accomplice in the war.”
According to Ionatamishvili, Russia’s annual fuel consumption exceeds 200 million tonnes, whereas the shipment sent to Abkhazia by the business amounts to 3,000 tonnes—0.001% of Russia’s consumption: “It is ridiculous, isn’t it, to claim that these few tankers were intended to supply Russia? Of course it is ridiculous, but when you are an agent and tasked with proving such absurdity, you must execute it unconditionally.”
The MP is convinced that the opposition’s task is to destabilize the country, create unrest, and bring chaos, which is why it will not accept the authorities’ humane steps aimed at restoring trust between Georgians and Abkhazians and advancing the reconciliation process.
Moreover, “following the instructions of their patrons,” the agents will do everything to ensure that these complex relations not only fail to improve, but reach an even greater impasse, keeping Georgia under constant threat of escalation.
