MoF: US Official’s Sanction Circumvention Statements “Misinterpreted” by the Media
The Ministry of Finance issued a statement saying the words uttered by U.S. State Department Head of Sanctions, Jim O’Brien, at the expert panel discussion were “again misinterpreted by media outlets and used as disinformation against Georgia.”
Politico Europe wrote yesterday that “sanctions circumvention remains a “substantial problem,” O’Brien said, adding the U.S. has identified issues with five countries in particular: Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia.”
The Ministry retorted, “Georgia was mentioned not as a country where the sanctions imposed by our international partners are being circumvented, but as the one that actively cooperates with partners to prevent violations of the sanctions regime as much as possible.”
Supporting its statement with statistics, the Ministry wrote the Georgian customs had issued over 1200 rulings to reject the sanctioned goods from being exported or re-exported and 800 rulings refusing applications for such exports.
We are providing a verbatim readout from the video of the panel discussion where Georgia was mentioned:
Question: Let’s ask a different question. How big is the problem actually of circumvention? Do you have figures? You mentioned the countries. Well, how big is it?
O’Brien: We know it’s a size…it’s a substantial problem. That’s why I’m going to Kazakhstan. That’s why I’m going to Georgia, Armenia, other places. We have teams going out to Turkey and other places.”
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