“Georgia has long ago imposed the restrictions that different countries are now imposing on Russia, be it travel restrictions, cutting off diplomatic relations, etc. So it can be said that these countries are now joining us,” Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili told reporters in response to a question about the imposition of sanctions against Russia.

As Papuashvili noted, Georgia has no leverage to impose more sanctions on Russia. He said restrictions and sanctions imposed by different countries and organizations affect Georgia as well.

“We are automatically involved in this. For example, in connection with Swift, we do not have the option to join it or not. We currently have limited relations with Russia, so it is difficult to talk about any additional measures. As for sanctions in the military industry, we have no trade with Russia in the military industry. That is why it is irrelevant to talk about joining sanctions on our part, as we do not have real leverage with the Russian Federation, the restriction or termination of which would have an impact.

Georgia already has limited relations with Russia. You can see that no one can say anything specific in this discussion. The only thing they talked about was to “close the sky”, but later the opposition itself rejected this idea. We do not have direct flights with Russia. Armenia uses the sky and it would be an unfriendly step towards Armenia to close the sky. Now everyone agrees that Georgia has no leverage apart from the restrictions we already have imposed.

Georgia has long ago imposed the restrictions that different countries are now imposing on Russia, be it travel restrictions, cutting off diplomatic relations, etc. So it can be said that these countries are now joining us,” Papuashvili said.