Johnny Melikyan believes that the more trade and economic relations deepen, the more Georgia will appear in the domain of Russia’s influence.
It is a fact that still one year ago Georgia joined the Crimea and the sanctions of Russia because of the Sevastopol, and according to this sanction, it has refused to import any commodity, although without it, there was not specific trade with this territory.
Today, speaking of the aggravations once again observed in Russian-Georgian relations, said the expert on Georgian affairs, Johnny Melikyan. Note that recently, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced that he was against Georgia to join the sanctions against Russia. “That was our position last year, and it hasn’t changed now.”
Note that only recently it became known that a year ago Georgia has joined one of the 15 sanctions against Russia: the ones related to the Crimea and Sevastopol. The expert considers former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Maia Panjikidze’s statement quite interesting, saying that this information is missed from the press. “But in the end, it turned out that it was not even in the press and unknown people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have said that at that time, it was banned to release this information. Today, it turns out that the former team members overheard it.”
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The speaker, generally, does not consider Georgia’s joining this sanction illogical, because mutually, Ukraine and Georgia have recognized each other’s territorial integrity. However, it caused a serious problem in Georgian-Russian commercial relations, particularly, in the wine consumption market. According to Johnny Melikyan, today, probably, the list of countries will be published against which Russia will impose sanctions. “I do not think that Georgia would be on this list as the Georgian side was sincere to say why it was necessary to join this one single sanction, but not the rest 14. If the Russian side, however, goes for harsh steps and deteriorates the trade relations with Georgia, it will have a negative influence for these two countries,” said he, adding that also the work of many years “will be gone to water” in terms of normalization of RF-Georgia relations.
Above all, according to the expert, if the economic relations are deepening, willy-nilly, Georgia appears to be under Russia’s influence. He notices that despite the statements voiced in Georgia that the Georgia’s economy is diversified with the economies of the EU member states, however, Georgia’s number one market remains the Russian market, Russia is number one country from where big sums are coming to Georgia. Last year it amounted to more than 600 million dollars, which is reduced this year by 40%.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
