According to Vakhtang Iobashvili, head of the Union of Oil Products Importers of Georgia, companies belonging to the business association deny importing fuel into occupied Abkhazia.
“They have no information whatsoever. 3,000 tons — are you kidding? That is the capacity of a single tanker. It doesn’t look like it was moved across the river. This would have had to pass officially, in very large trucks. Everyone denies it, and I didn’t expect any other answers,” Iobashvili stated on TV Pirveli.
He believes the oil was delivered to Abkhazia by sea.
In recent days, amid fuel supply shortages in Abkhazia, the opposition party United National Movement reported that fuel had been imported into the occupied region from territory controlled by Tbilisi.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that the deliveries were carried out by private businesses, not the government. “Overall, the existing legislative framework permits this, including the Law on Occupied Territories. If such a step was taken or is taken in the future, all such steps are taken strictly within the framework of the Law on Occupied Territories,” Kobakhidze noted.
Rati Ionatamishvili, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, wrote that “it was 3,000 tons, which is just a few trucks.” He assured that the fuel could not have been re-exported to Russia, adding that this volume represents a mere 0.001% of Russian consumption.
