According to the explanation of the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, the supply of fuel by business to the territory of occupied Abkhazia was coordinated with the government. As Kobakhidze noted at a press conference held at the Government Administration, when issuing the permit the government was motivated by the restoration of trust with the occupied territories.

According to the Prime Minister’s information, as of yesterday approximately 680 tons of fuel had entered occupied Abkhazia from the territory controlled by Georgia’s central government.

“Of course, all of this was coordinated with us. There are legislative acts on the basis of which such transactions are carried out. Naturally, such issues have their political sensitivity; accordingly, of course, it was coordinated with the government by the business side. When the business expressed such an interest, when the business received this proposal, it was coordinated with us and we saw the benefit, including in terms of restoring trust. The initiative came not from the business, but from the occupied territories; I do not know with whom exactly they had talks there, but a fuel shortage arose, this was a problem, and there was a request related to filling this fuel shortage, in connection with which the business approached us and we took a supportive decision. They had talks with partners; perhaps there were also businessmen from there, I cannot tell you; presumably there was also business from there that had a fuel shortage; perhaps they approached them, perhaps someone else approached them, but for us the main thing was that there was a shortage, an approach was made from there to the business, then the business coordinated this issue with us, and that is how all of this was arranged,” Kobakhidze stated.

To the question of whether the Georgian authorities were involved in the negotiations for the fuel to be transported across the Enguri bridge to the territory of occupied Abkhazia, Kobakhidze noted that all issues were a matter of business negotiations. He also answered questions related to the supply of fuel to Russia.

“This was a matter of business negotiations; they negotiated everything; for us this is from beginning to end related to the issue of restoring trust. For us, as the government, making money was not the main goal; perhaps the business’s goal was making money; our goal is the restoration of trust. The only motive why we took a supportive decision was precisely this vision, a vision directed toward the restoration of trust. Everything was done within the framework of the Law on Occupation.

We heard many absurd statements; there was a hysterical campaign in general, because our opponents do not like the process of restoring trust and the hysteria is connected with this. As for ‘supplying Russia,’ Russia’s consumption is such that the fuel that enters Abkhazia is 0.001% of it; it is absolutely unserious to talk about Russia being supplied with the fuel that enters Abkhazia. Then there was talk about supplying the bases – they think the bases stand on wheels and move here and there. It is complete absurdity to talk about a military base being supplied with this fuel; any base has its own fuel reserves and this fuel is consumed very rarely, because a base is not a mobile object, a base is a static object. They went into every kind of absurdity because they have hysteria. When they see that certain steps may contribute to the restoration of trust, our opponents have hysteria. The volume of fuel that entered our region, Abkhazia, is irrelevant for Russia. By the way, there are also local Baramidzes and Gvaramias there who are conducting a hysterical campaign against this. For me that Abkhaz who hysterically opposes the supply of fuel and Gvaramia are absolutely one and the same. Thanks to us an important humanitarian problem was solved in Abkhazia, which in the end will be evident to everyone. Such steps will contribute to the restoration of trust.

This is a company that regularly carries out similar activities; it has such trade connections within the framework of the Law on Occupation; this is not a one-time act. As of yesterday 680 tons of fuel had been supplied,” the Prime Minister stated.

For information, the fuel was supplied to the territory of occupied Abkhazia by LLC “Solidus.”

“If we had not supplied this, 40 thousand Georgians would have started crossing over to Zugdidi with 20-liter canisters. That is why it was decided that it was better for me to supply it together with my Abkhaz friends,” stated the owner of the company, Giorgi Arveladze.