Commenting on the accusations against Tbilisi on June 16, David Kartvelishvili, a member of the Georgian public movement "People's Power," stated that the West continues to look in Georgia for evidence of circumvention of sanctions against Russia while Washington pays Russian companies about a billion dollars a year for nuclear fuel. 

"Although the United States has done a great job of imposing sanctions against Russia, Washington must recognize its dependence on Moscow in a key issue - the supply of nuclear fuel. And before that, French and German journalists continue unsuccessfully searching in Georgia for facts about circumventing the sanctions imposed against Russia," Kartvelishvili stressed. He cited as an example the publication of The New York Times, which says that dozens of countries around the world depend on Russia because of enriched uranium. Kartvelishvili stressed that no one in the US is currently enriching uranium; since Washington stopped enriching uranium in the early 1990s, about a third of the enriched uranium used in the US still comes from Russia.

"The New York Times emphasizes that this is one of the most important cash flows from the US to Russia, and it continues despite the persistent efforts of Washington’s allies to cut economic ties with Moscow," Kartvelishvili said.

As previously reported by Caucasus Watch, speaking at an event hosted by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) on June 8, Jim O'Brien, the head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department, who was speaking about the sanctions on Russia, said that Georgia had been named as one of the five nations that are contributing to the circumvention issue. When asked which nations participate in this circumvention, O'Brien provided the following list: Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates, and Armenia.