Ukraine claims Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia assisting Russia in evading sanctions
Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan have all been accused by Ukrainian Defence Intelligence of talking with Moscow over the reexport of Russian items to foreign markets.
"The supply will be made up of Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani items, which will be sent to third countries," the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence Intelligence warned. More than 200 enterprises have already been founded in South Caucasus nations, according to the report.
Armenia, according to Ukrainian defence intelligence, offers advantageous economic circumstances for Russian enterprises, particularly in the IT sector. "Since the start of Russia's large-scale war against Ukraine, about 85,000 Russian nationals and 113 IT enterprises have come to Armenia," the report stated. "On the territory of Armenia, Russian residents established roughly a thousand private firms and around 250 limited liability organisations, which pay taxes to both Armenian and Russian budgets," it added.
Georgia's Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili called the latest assertion by Ukrainian Defence Intelligence that Tbilisi is in negotiations with Moscow about reexporting sanctioned Russian commodities to foreign markets "totally nonsensical." He stated that the Georgian government will contact Kiev to request precise data in support of the claim. According to Khutsishvili, both Russia's access to foreign money and its commercial trade are entirely compliant with UN sanctions. Minister Khutsishvili also claimed that Georgia's foreign partners, who have imposed sanctions on Russia, had "no doubts" about the Georgian government's adherence to the sanctions. Tbilisi conducts "extremely strong customs control" in this respect, he said, adding that nations that have sanctioned Russian goods similarly scrutinise related imports from Armenia.