“At this moment, given the current geopolitical situation, no one would impose sanctions on Azerbaijan, and that’s how Kulevi was saved,” opposition politician Roman Gotsiridze said while discussing the removal of Kulevi Port from the EU’s 20th sanctions package.

As Gotsiridze noted on Palitra News’ program Resume, due to Azerbaijan’s geopolitical importance, the EU did not impose sanctions on Kulevi Port, which resulted in the port—and the associated oil product plant—being spared from sanctions.

“They directly stated that they are taking into account your promise. The letter mentions the promise and the commitment that this will not happen again. In reality, it was the Azerbaijan factor. Armenia and Azerbaijan became Trump’s favorite countries. At this moment, given this geopolitical situation, no one would sanction Azerbaijan. That’s how Kulevi was saved, and so was the plant, which actually produces nothing, and it became the number one oil exporter, including to EU countries. It’s either Azerbaijani or Russian oil,” Gotsiridze said.

Gotsiridze stated that the letter sent by the EU Special Representative for sanctions issues, David O’Sullivan, to Georgia’s Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili, is “extremely strict and undiplomatic” and contains elements of a warning.

According to Gotsiridze, the main message of the letter is that the EU did not sanction Georgia at this stage because both the Georgian side and the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR committed that such an incident would not happen again.

“This letter [from EU Special Representative for Sanctions David O’Sullivan to Georgia’s Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili] is extremely strict, written in an undiplomatic tone. One could even say it is threatening. The whole content of the letter is: ‘We will not sanction you and we forgive you because you apologized and took a commitment, both the Georgian side and SOCAR.’ This is a legal-political assessment. But in reality, why is it not sanctioned? Because Azerbaijan’s oil industry would be affected. Azerbaijan exports its crude oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, while all refined oil products are exported through Kulevi,” Gotsiridze stated.

The opposition politician added that from November to January, fuel worth approximately $16 million was exported from Kulevi Port to Europe. According to him, this fuel might have originated from Russia, then been officially documented and transferred from one ship to another, eventually being exported under the status of Georgian products.

“Kulevi belongs to Azerbaijan through its state company SOCAR, and SOCAR is also involved in this scheme. Responsibility also lies with Georgia, whose jurisdiction Kulevi Port falls under, which exported fuel worth $16 million to Europe from November to January. Russian fuel came in, was documented, transferred from one ship to another…

To produce oil worth 300 million GEL, at least 60 million GEL in wages should be paid. There are no workers there—you won’t see even 10 people. How much VAT entered the budget? This whole scheme is revealed by a single indicator: Georgia’s export statistics,” Gotsiridze said.