It's important you to have realistic expectations about sanctions, - German Ambassador to Georgia Peter Fischer stated in an exclusive interview with InterpressNews, speaking about the OSCE's launch of the Moscow Mechanism.

As Peter Fischer noted, Germany and the European Union cannot impose sanctions on people and their family members simply because they consider them unfriendly or harmful; this must have a legal basis.

“I'd like to say something fundamental about sanctions, because it always comes up in every conversation I have with Georgian people, and it's important to have realistic expectations about sanctions. The first thing, it is completely exceptional for one state or one organ, one organization like the EU, to establish sanctions against citizens of another state for acts that they have committed in their own state or outside our state. We call it extraterritorial jurisdiction. That is a big exception that shouldn't be. Germany looks after Germany. The EU looks after the EU, Georgia looks after Georgia. So first of all, it's exceptional, and it can only happen if there's a legal basis. The legal basis can be violations of international agreements. It can be violations of human rights. It can be waging a war of aggression on another state, that's also a violation of international law. It can be for owning or using forbidden weapons, again, violation of something that is written black on white, and it can be for violating international sanctions regimes. Plus there has to be hard evidence. We say evidence has to be enough to be sustained before a court of law. We don't want and we can't legally impose sanctions against people that we think are unfriendly or harmful, to put it like, in a casual way, just because we don't like someone, we can't establish sanctions. Tthat's illegal, and we don't do it. Also, we can't have sanctions against family members of people unless there is hard evidence that a family member has committed a violation of the legal basis that I mentioned. And finally, sanctions. And I just like to repeat this to my Georgian friends, yes, it's an instrument that is used. It's an effective instrument, but it's not a fast instrument.

Look at Russia under sanctions. Look at Iran under sanctions. Look at North Korea under heavy, heavy sanctions, but it still hasn't stopped its illegal activity. So sanctions are not a solution to everything, and you have to have realistic expectations about sanctions”, said the Ambassador.