My European and American friends, after the war of 2008, you continued doing business with Russia in the usual way, you did not impose sanctions, said the Prime Minister of Georgia at the Qatar Economic Forum.

“In 2008, we had a war. Do you remember anyone who imposed sanctions during our war? No one! No one in the world had the right reaction, no one had an adequate reaction during that war.

My question is: where is the logic? Do you think our war was not a war and only the war in Ukraine is a war?

I have to say that we were very disappointed that there was business with Russia as usual after the 2008 war.

After that devastating war, 20% of Georgia has been occupied by Russia. Russia built two military bases on our historical land, Russia recognized the so-called independence of our historical regions and this occupation continues.

So my question to my European, American friends is the following - my dear friends, you have been doing business as usual with Russia, you have not imposed sanctions.

The European Union paid 2.3 trillion dollars to Russia before 2022. No one stopped business with Russia then, nothing had happened”, - said Irakli Garibashvili.